Board of Education Meeting June 3, 2025

001be parking here. So right I don't know. I Good evening and calling the meeting to order. Welcome to the West Hartford Public Schools regular board of education meeting. It is Tuesday, June the 3. Ammani, may you please call the role. Mr. Gagnon, here. Mr. Goldman, here. Dr. Harris, here. Miss Maramman, here. Miss Naserella, present. Dr. Thomas Farquisten, here. Mrs. Yagalof, present. Sarah Granquist, here. Alexis Nuen, here. Thank you. And Alexis, may you please lead us in the pledge of allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. We have a slight revision to the agenda order, more so in addition to the agenda, and for this purpose, we use point

002of privilege, please, to pass the baton to our superintendent. But for formalities, we certainly want to model what is appropriate. I'm making a motion that we do allow for a special presentation to be made prior to public communications. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, teammates. All of those in favor say I. I. I. I. Any oppose? Any abstain? The eyes have it. Thank you very much, Mr. Vicinus. Thank you very much. Um, as you said, we do have a very special presentation for one of our students from Cedric Middle School. I I want to acknowledge um Chief Riddick uh from our West Harford fire West Harford Police Department here and Chief Priest from our West Harford Fire Department are here and they are here um in strength with many of their partners. Um, but

003rather than take any of the thunder away from my colleague at Cedric Middle School at this time, I would ask Principal Cookish to come forward and folks that she's brought with her for um for some introductory comments as to uh who we might be uh celebrating here uh this evening. And if it's easy for you to center mic, just make sure you touch the button for the mics to work. You can sit or stand. Karen, why don't you use that mic then? Thank you. Uh, Mr. Vicinus. My name is is Karen Cookish and I am the very proud principal of Cedric Middle School and I am also extremely proud and extremely blessed and honored to be able to say that West Hartford Public School students save lives. literally save lives. And we are here tonight

004to honor our sixth grade student at Sedwick, Lucas Holland Head. And the reason we are here is Well, I'm actually going to let Lucas share a little bit about what happened. It's his story to tell and and I would like for him to tell it. Are you okay with that? Um, so, uh, so me and my friend were walking down to 8th period. Uh, I had techad and my friend had science or sorry, no, my friend had, uh, music. And, uh, he had he had won a lollipop in science class, which we both had before. And, um, in music, you can't have a lollipop cuz you're singing. So, um, he had like bitten down on it to like have it because he had put in his mouth to and then remembered that he had music.

005So, he didn't want to have to throw away the lollipop without like having it. So, he had like punched on it and a piece got lodged in his throat and I uh did the highlight. [Applause] I would like to say that the poise and the the calm and just the the thinking that occurred at that time for Lucas at such a young age is just truly incredible and extraordinary. And I think many of us as adults may have been very flustered in that same situation. And the first comment Lucas had made to me upon our interaction after this occurred, he told me that he learned it from from who? Uh my my sixth grade help. He learned it from Mr. Legghorn who is who is right here with us tonight. So thank you so much.

006[Applause] Excuse me. Sorry. All right. The West Harford Fire Department and Police Department proudly recognized Lucas Holland's Head for his courageous and life-saving actions on May 9th, 2025. When a fellow student began choking, Lucas immed responded immediately, drawing upon the emergency response skills he learned in his health class. Lucas quickly and effectively performed the Heimlick maneuver, successfully clearing the obstruction and preventing a potentially life-threatening situation. Lucas's calm demeanor, quick thinking, and decip decisive action under pressure reflect exceptional presence of mind, a strong sense of responsibility. His willingness to act in a moment of crisis serves as an inspiration uh example to his peers and to the entire community. In recognition of his bravery and positive impact of his training, we honor we are honored to present the life-saving award to Lucas Holland Head. Congratulations. [Applause]

007Lucas, please don't go yet. May you please come back once again? Well, I just want you to know as as I know I'm holding back tears and colleagues are as well, how proud we are of you because what you demonstrated as your principal acknowledged that you were able to be calm and and our wonderful official staff have also acknowledged that and how your remark the remarks that were given and given you the reward. There are many adults that would have struggled with that. They would have panicked. But you were calm. You were collected and you helped save a life and that is a beautiful thing. And please know that the token you have right there is something that means much more than the tangible piece. You have reminded all of us of the power of

008young people and how we can learn from you because at your young age you did something that we adults can model after. Bless you. Thank you. And I do want to know Mr. Legghorn where are you once again sir? Bless you as well. And Lucas, is there anyone else that came with you today? May you please come forward. Thank you so very much for raising a wonderful son. And I'm sure to say you are proud of him speaks little to what really is being felt at this time. And boy, that's your brother. That's way cool. That's way cool. You are wonderful. We are so proud of you. Continue to do wonderful blessings and just I'm going to stop before I get more choked up. But colleagues, is there anything you care to say? Collectively, I'm

009inspired. I'm having a hard time. I'm feeling very emotional, but I'm very I'm very inspired by your courage. So, thank you for just being you. Absolutely, Lucas. Keep up the great work. Wonderful. Round of applause [Applause] again. Thank you. All right. Okay. Well, as we continue on with the agenda, we now shall proceed to public communications and we'll actually take a 30 second breather so we can collect ourselves. Wonderful. Thank you. This is an opportunity where we are able to hear from you your thoughts, your questions, your suggestions, your concerns. Each individual is allowed three minutes to speak. We ask when you come to the podium to please share your name and your town of residence. Please be mindful of Ammani who will hold up a yellow card when one minute is remaining in your

010time. And when your time is expired, you will see a red card. We ask for you please to conclude your sentence and respectfully take your seat at that time. Please be mindful that we are attentively listening to you. However, it is policy that we do not respond to comments as they are being made. For this evening's purpose, just so we are aware of what the agenda is, but we are receiving comments on any topic, tonight's agenda includes non-lapsing unexpended education funds account, equity advancement in WHPS, district profile and performance report, financial report period ending April 20th, 2025, and approval of minutes from the May 20th, 2025 board of education meeting. We will begin first by acknowledging those who have signed up to speak on agenda items and I have on the list Mark Greenstein Greenstein

011and I will say in advance I apologize if I mispronounce anyone's name again charge it to my head and not my heart. Mark is fine. Thank you. Thank you all. Um the topic is the financial and on the top page it does talk about a nice savings in tutoring. And I want to address both savings and quality because it's really rare. Usually there's a trade-off, right? Between lower cost, you're usually going to get lower quality. Please consider when assigning tutors, especially in home tutors, the benefits of online tutoring. Let me just ask and I know you can't respond, but the kids can and the parents can. Could you raise your hand if you've ever had a good online tutor or your kids have? Any Sarah? You could respond. Most have at some point. And please

012recognize just how adept students are at this point. Rising seniors in West Hartford because of COVID now six springs ago have had online learning since the end of elementary school. Okay? And everyone younger than them. So they're good at it. They are used to it. And the advantage of a student who can have a tutor from almost anywhere. We're not sticking with the often hard to get, highly paid, sometimes unavailable tutors here. And you can call on people. And here's the financials. You're calling on someone who is almost certainly able to see more students per day cuz they're not traveling. and you don't have costs of air conditioning custodial or space and you might even have the ability to pay them as 1099s instead of W2s. The final thing is they might be from and

013very good at it from outside the district but credentialed enough so that you can have a tutor from killingly teach coding. Another one from Kent could be teaching Latin. Another one from Kentucky or Georgia could be teaching math. And by the way, the minimum wage in Georgia is 725 an hour. So the ability to finance more tutoring if you wanted it, which I'd like or same amount of tutoring for less is really good when you call on internet. So thank you. Please consider it. Thank you. Before you depart, please just state your town of residence. Um, Mark Greenstein from West Hartford. Thank you. That was it who I had signing up for agenda items. Is there anyone who would like to speak on an agenda item? And if not, I'll proceed to those that are

014speaking on any topic. All right, going to the list of those speaking on general topics. Mr. Mark, I see you again. If you can allow us to go through Thank you so much. We'll come back to you. Uh, Jonathan. Yes. Hi there. My name is Jonathan Rayon. I am a resident of West Hartford. I'm the proud parent of a 14-year-old son who is in the West Hartford public school system who actually recently was named student of the month. So, um, very happy about that. Um, last time I was here two weeks ago to talk about uh digital technology in classrooms and some of the harms that they pose. And uh today I've I'm come I've come back because um I wanted to provide you with some tools. And what I've done is this morning I

015ran a couple of AI generated reports on um on two topics. One of them is a review of policies on digital electronics um in um especially in states that have taken stands on these policies, but also in countries such as France and Brazil where they've enacted cell phone bans. I'm going to leave this with you. The other thing Thank you. Oh, and by the way, these reports are fantastic. If you've never seen an AI report before 20 minutes this thing took, it's it's really really term paper quality. Um, the other one is that I started looking into the addictive nature of cell phones. And it just so happens that cell phones will light up the same pleasure centers in your brain as controlled substances, unfortunately. And so if if you look at our policy now

016in the high school where there's an off and away policy where kids can carry around their cell phones, it's really a lot to ask them to control the impulse for the same reasons that we we we don't allow students to walk around with controlled substances. Um we shouldn't be allow them to walk around with cell phones. They don't have the impulse control. And I'm and I think that if you ask students um are people surfing the in the backs of classrooms when they shouldn't be? I think that every student would know whether that that goes on to some extent. And so for that reason, what I'm hoping that can happen is that the policy that is in place currently in the middle schools, which is to my understanding, it's often away in your lockers all

017day. I'd like to see that put in at the high school and and and I'd like it to happen because it won't cost that much. It's already a policy that the students understand. There's no special technology. It's a matter of copying and pasting. some of the verbiage from one student handbook in the middle schools to that of the high schools. I think it can be done relatively um easily and straightforwardly. Um as opposed to if we if you look at Chromebooks, you need technology. That's going to take some time and some budget, but I think we can do this right away. And so I'm I'm I'm begging this body to to have some urgency, especially the policy subcommittee. I understand is reviewing these matters, but August is the next meeting in August probably is not

018enough time in order to enact this policy in the fall. So, I'm hoping that you will um uh add some urgency and act quickly or if you're unable to um enact a a ban in classrooms in the fall, then please consider rolling it out during the school year. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Next, we have I believe Courtney is Hi, nice to meet you guys. I'm Courtney Row, a resident of West Hartford. Um, I also happen to be a surgeon at the at the uh Children's Hospital and a member of the Connecticut American Academy of Pediatrics Board of Directors. Um, but I'm here today as a mom of two Cedric students and one Wil Wulkit student in support of an away all day cell phone ban. Um, the research is relatively clear.

019Uh, you know, the American Academy of Pediatrics does support limiting cell phone use and uh, uh, media use in the schools. Um, it's been shown that cell phone bans increase test scores. It's been shown that what kids are using their cell phones for during school is not to study or to do anything else. They're using it for YouTube, social media, and other things. Um, and there is some concern that easy access to cell phones increases bullying. Um, and creates invasion of privacy when people are photoing each other in the halls. Um, I think that the policy that's currently happening at the at the high school and the deacto policy in the middle school where kids have their phone out in the hallway, um, certainly leads to a lot of concerning behavior. You know, I can

020speak to a child I knew who was beat up in her first year in in Cedric Middle School. Um, ended up with a concussion, went to the hospital, and then had to go home and have the videotape of herself getting getting the concussion sent to her by all her friends who are watching. Um, not really something that I think anybody needs to go through and not really something that is creating the kind of environment we want for our kids. Um, so happy to to speak at a later date if anybody has any questions about the research. Um, but hopefully the school board will consider an away all day ban for cell phones. Oh, and I forgot I was going to ask because I think we have people in the room who might support a similar

021ban but who might not want to speak. So, I was going to ask if anyone wanted to raise their hand if they also are supportive of an away all day ban on the cell phones. There we go. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Next, we have Esther Gonzalez. Hi, good evening. I'm Esther. I'm a resident of West Hartford and I'm here to read on behalf of Tiffany Perry. She's a sixth grade language art teacher. She's not with us today, but she requested if we can share with you um her thoughts. H so she's saying I cannot attend this evening. However, if someone is willing to comment regarding the benefits of having sets of Chromebooks, Chromebook cards in each teacher classroom rather than assigning the student Chromebooks to carry around all day. That would be amazing.

022With cards in each classroom, teachers are in charge of when students have access. In addition, students are not constantly drawn to the screens in times when they should be learning valuable social skills with peers, such as in the hallways, lining up for classes, at lunch, and in the classroom. This would limit conflicts and frankly most may cost less in repairs. Students often drop Chromebooks or mistreat them while carrying them around the building. Let's contact student access aids on curbing not promoting addiction or logging onto the nonchool related or inappropriate websites during unstructured times. Many students struggle with the screen addition. Teachers see it daily. Finally, a tool such at such as go guard guardian is necessary to keep a students safe. The unfettered unfettered access students have to everything on the internet. Yes, everything at

023all grades is simply shocking. Parents make assumptions that the students are safe at the school as we state that safety is in is our priority but then they are not all protected on Chromebooks. Teachers do the best we can. For example, I see behind them so I can see their screens but we cannot monitor every students at all times. Please make putting a computer card in each teacher's room and purchasing a screen guardian priorities. Our kids are counting on us to keep them safe and help them be successful, productive, productive, engaged learners. Thank you, Tiffany. Thank you. Is there anyone else who would like to make a public comment? Please come to the podium, share your name, and so all right, we have an order. All right. Thank you. Hello. Um, my name is Amy

024Meyers. I'm a resident of West Hartford. I have a 14-year-old at Sedwick for one more week and a half. Um, I support the um, cell phone ban during the day. Uh, quite frankly, I was kind of surprised it wasn't already in place. Um, and I just don't really understand why what the argument for not banning them would be. Um, kids need to learn how to interact with each other rather than the screen. I say as I stare at my screen, I recognize the problem. But um I really just think we need if they're um using their uh screens constantly and their phones during the school day, when are they not using it? Uh they're in school to learn to learn how to think using their brains, not the phone, not AI, not you know, and

025we really need to encourage that. So again, if it's not during the day, are they ever without their phone? So anyway, thank you for your consideration and I thoroughly support everything the folks before me have said about getting phones in school. Thank you. Hello, my name is Ariadna and I am a resident of West Hartford. I'm not here because I'm an expert in this, but because I am an avid reader of Jonathan Hyde and I wholeheartedly support the banana on phones during the day. My two girls are still way too young for phones, although they do see my addiction to it and I'm sure learning from it. My two girls are well one is going to be a second grader at Bugby. The other one is just starting at Bugby. But you can see the

026influence of phones. They're pervasive. And again to echo everything that folks have said, there is enough of a body of evidence that there is a harmful impact from them on our children. So I think it's it's incumbent on us to take action on that. So that's one of my comments. And the other comment I realize comes late because there's been a lot of discussion of this earlier in the year um and I have just woken up to this um after receiving a note from Bugby telling us about some consolidations in the staffing and again I'm not sure that I'm getting my facts right because I am getting them from Chad GPT but when I started looking into the student teacher ratios that we have guidelines for for the elementary schools I was frankly shocked that

027they stood at 23 and 27 for within the elementary schools because that seems quite high and also knowing that that was that those guidelines were set last in 1988 also was somewhat surprising um because I do again think that there's a huge benefit to the smaller class sizes and many of us live in this town because of the excellent education we expect our children to get. though if there is an erosion of that um we will be considering other options and I don't think it's and and and I think again um we know that the board has thought about it thoughtfully and I'm sure that there that that there are business considerations with this. I'm a strategist by trade. Um um I I work in business so I understand what the cost um trade-offs must

028be, but I do think that this is something that every parent I know in the Bugby school system is very concerned about and I'm here to just share that takeaway. Thank you. Thank you. I see we have a self-formed line. So, next in line, please. Jeff Kiglin, West Starford, here to talk about the cell phone ban as well. In full support of banning cell phones from the schools during the school day. Um, as others have said, the studies are crystal clear. This was actually supposed to be my wife who's a doctor as well given this little bit here, but she got called in. She's on call today, so she's doing more important things. Um, it's kind of a hot topic with her right now. You know, we don't have kids that are middle schoolers or

029high schoolers. They're just starting their elementary school journey. So, we still got a little bit of time to figure this out. But, they will be and hopefully by then it's all figured out because the studies do show it's you wouldn't let your kid walk around with drugs because it's going to screw up their brain. these cell phones. It's been shown it does affect their mental abilities, increases anxiety, it replaces serotonin. Um, and it's one of those things when you know better, you need to do better. And we do know better at this point. It is not good for the kids. And if we can give them an 8 to 10 hour break every day, why not? Now, whether in the locker away all day is going to work, probably not. Kids are kids, right? they're

030going to find a way to sneak them out of their bags or when teachers aren't looking. So, it may be something more drastic like other districts have done around us, whether it's Torington, um Waterberry just recently adopted the Yonder program. Wilton has a Yonder program. Now, those do come with a cost, but instead of thinking of it as a cost, think of it an investment of our kids' futures, of our education system, of our town. Because as our education system goes, our town goes. Whether you want to look at property values or livability or whatever your niche score, it all starts with right here in this room. And this is one simple thing that we can take part of and just get a good system going right now. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you. Next. Uh,

031hi, my name is Matt Muscardi. Uh I am a dad at uh two kids at Sedwick and one in Walit. Um uh I actually want to say two things. I Everybody's talked about the studies. First, I'm fully in support of banning cell phones during the school day. Um everybody's already mentioned the studies. I don't think it's worth sort of belaboring the studies. The scientific evidence seems pretty clear. Um, but I want to talk about what the uh the the tech community does itself, which I think is very telling. Um, there are a lot of uh there's a lot of evidence and there's a lot of reporting around the fact that the tech community does not let their own kids use the technology that they sell. Um, Mark Zuckerberg doesn't let his kids on Facebook. Um,

032uh, kid kids don't have tablets or devices at home. They limit screen time. So, I think the community that creates these devices knows how damaging they can be. But I also want to talk about the flip side, which I think is something everyone's a little bit afraid to talk about, which is the fear that if you don't have a cell phone in a school shooting situation or an emergency situation that that there's a there's a palpable fear for parents. I can't get in touch with my kids. And I think it's a reasonable fear, but I also think we are effectively allowing our kids to become addicted to one poison because we're not legislating another, which is allowing weapons to be assault weapons to be accessible to everybody. So, I think there in some way there

033needs to be a discussion of the anxiety that parents feel, but I also think that this is in the best long-term interest of kids and we cannot possibly be thinking of trading saying, well, well, in my opinion, that it can be okay for our kids to be addicted to a device, increased anxiety, depression, all the scientific outcomes we know to be true because we're afraid that we can't get in touch with them in the low probability event, the horrible low probability event because we weren't willing to legislate the thing that needs to be legislated. So, those are the two places that I was listening to it as a live streaming as I came in and I wanted to bring those up because they hadn't been mentioned, but thank you very much. Thank you. Next. Hello,

034Michelle Efflyn, West Harvard resident. Um, okay. You've heard it all. You've heard moms and dads and doctors and we're all saying the same thing. And you don't need another person to tell you, but you do. You need a teacher who lives it to tell you. I don't work in town. I work in Weathersfield in a middle school. And we do have a way all day, excuse me, at our school, also at the high school now. And let me tell you, when I started there, I've been there for about 14 years. We didn't have that. It is night and day. They have to be away. We get so much more done now. The kids aren't even thinking of their phones. They're not sneaking off to the bathroom to text somebody or to Tik Tok or whatever.

035They are more engaged in class. It is so much better for everybody. And even at the high school, yes, the kids are older. Yes, they're more developed, but they're still developing. And if you put them in a room full of candy, probably going to eat that candy. The cell phone is the same thing. And away all day is an easy thing to do. costs zero money. You don't necessarily have to do a yonder. If you get your principles on board and you get your teachers on board and you have a system of keeping kids accountable and keeping parents accountable too um for the phones then it does work. Um that's first. Second is I was somebody already said but I as an educator was shocked to find out that there is no Chromebook management software

036for teachers. If I did not have go, excuse me, GoG Guardian at my school, I would not use my Chromebooks with my kids, they would be closed. The end. You have to have something. It is the same. Your tech people can be amazing like my tech people are, and they're blocking sites left and right. It doesn't matter. They spring up like that. So, you need to have some access where you can focus focus their screen on what they're doing. And the kids, they fall in line. You take it away from them. They're like, "Okay, I'll do that. Mrs. Efflin, they really will. They're looking for boundaries. A lot of kids will just go on stray sites or use their phone because their friends are doing it. So, if we take that option away, it's better

037for everybody. Thank you for hearing me. I hope I've been in education for over 20 years. Please, please, please. I know it's expensive. I know the parents are worried, but please do these two things. You will not regret it. You will say, "I wish we did it sooner." Thank you. [Applause] Thank you. Mark, would you like you were on the list. Would you like to go? Mark Greenstein from West Hartford. And And I will comment about cell phones. Remember, there's a thing called a flip phone. The danger is the smartphone. If parents want their kids to call in an emergency or just a chat that's not an emergency, allow the flip phone. It's $40. They still make them. So, that might solve any parent's concern about, oh, I can't have my kid without a phone.

038Yes, she can have her phone. Um, I was mainly here to talk about how West Hartford students, I'll put it this way, the SATs have become important again. My firm is an SAT prep firm. We we do other academic tutoring, but our forte is SAT prep. And because they're becoming a lot more important, West Hartford Leisure Services does use our um our classes and private tutoring that's in the catalog. I'd like to make a pitch to the board here to consider integrating directed SAT prep as part of English or math for students who don't opt out maybe not require it but when you can do it with a seasoned set of SAT directed and yes that is teaching to the test and I know that causes qualms with a lot of educators, but it makes

039a huge difference in the schools that kids can be admitted to and the scholarships which are even more directly related to SAT scores. The money that a a family can save is greatly related to SATs even more than grades. So for both those sakes um having an efficient and maybe even integrated into the curriculum at my firm we call it RR reading writing and reasoning and those really are the topics on both ACT and SAT. So if the possibility of integrating it so that a transcript might show RR that is heavily SAT prep or ACT prep, I think our students will succeed even more. Finally, West Hartford kids are discriminated against in college admissions. Okay, we are perceived as a privileged suburb and that means a quality student here typically loses out to the same

040quality if the kid is from rural Nebraska or from the Bronx. And West Hartford, when I was a student, there were 50 students a year that got admitted to the Ivy Leagues. There were 10 in my Dartmouth class, but we now it's a lot lot harder. and this might be a good equalizer. Thanks very much. Thank you. Is there anyone else who cares to make a public comment? Yes, please come to the podium. Please share your name, your town of residence and you have three minutes and you could be mindful of the yellow card when one minute remains and the red card when your time is expired. And this direction was given to all presenters. Thank you. Sorry I came in late. Um, my name is Jason Wang. I live at 194 Mile Road. Um,

041I'm a parent of two kids. Um, one of whom's a first grader at Duffy, another one who's in preschool. Um, I didn't prepare any remarks, but um, I just came to say that um, I strongly support a um, bell-to-bell or cell phone ban. Um I'm actually an um an addiction doctor. So uh I see you know addiction in it's its many forms and um you know these these smartphone companies and these um uh app companies they they know exactly what they're doing. Um they know they probably have much more data and much more sophistication than we do in the medical field as far as how to suck your attention in and keep keep your children looking at phones. Um, and we know that, you know, children have a, um, you know, a lesser ability to

042kind of, uh, regulate their use of phones. It's much easier to, if you've ever seen a 5-year-old, you know, watch YouTube, you know, um, just how deeply they can get sucked into it and and how much more um, attention grabbing it is than even just, you know, a movie or, you know, a Disney movie from 20 years ago. Um, these companies know what they're doing and and it really um is harmful for the kids. um it's harmful for them and their emotional development and and for their education. Um so I strongly support a bell-to-bell cell phone ban. Thanks. Thank you. Is there anyone else who cares to make a public comment? Hi, my name is Lee Albini. I'm a resident of West Hartford and I also just wanted to add my support to a Belltobell

043cell phone ban. Um I'm the parent of a 5-year-old and a 2-year-old. My daughter will be a kindergartener at Duffy next year and I think it would be incredibly powerful if her entire cohort of kindergarteners could make it through their elementary school, their middle school, their high school without the influence of cell phones in their classroom. Um, and you know, the data shows that a bell-to-bell ban is really a much stronger deterrent than obviously, you know, we all want cell phones out of the classroom. We don't want them distracting students during the day. But that bell-to-bell also ensures that that in between class time in the lunchroom, in the hallway, that that's time for socialization, time for kids to do the things that make them kids, spend time with each other, laugh and joke with

044each other, interact with their teachers in ways that they don't when they're, you know, seated in the classroom. So, you know, I wanted to make sure that I came out and added my voice to what I hope is a course of support for this really common sense, really powerful policy that will have immense benefit for our kids and for our teachers as well. Thanks. [Applause] Thank you. Is there anyone else who cares to make a public comment? I'll ask again. Anyone else care to make a public comment? All right, we shall pause on public communications. And before we proceed to non-staff communications, for some of you who may wonder, well, we see Charlotte here, but Ammani was referenced in terms of the roll call and holding up the cards. And that is because our wonderful

045Charlotte, this is her last meeting with us. She has been with us for several years. She's still with the district. So, we're not saying goodbye. She is just saying a pause on her time here with us and will dedicate more time to where she currently is serving so well in the district. So want to certainly publicly recognize and thank you so very much Charlotte for all you have done to support the district. And with that we welcome Ammani to the team. Ammani you have been here and shadowed for some meetings and now it looks like you are in the hot seat. So welcome to you and we look forward to continued engagement. So welcome Ammani. And now proceeding to non-staff communications where we're able to receive our updates from our student representatives. And I'm moving

046a bit slowly only because this is our last time hearing from you in this way. But I will reserve additional comments for a later time. But Sarah, may you please begin sharing what has been going on at Hall. Hi everyone. We are in our last few days of the school year at Hall and today was the last day of classes for seniors. Tomorrow we are holding our first senior field day event. Uh seniors will participate in games, activities, and have free food outside on Hall's Lacrosse Field. Students will check in with staff in the morning providing some more structure to the last day of high school than past years. Senior finals will take place on Thursday, Friday, Monday, and Tuesday, um with a graduation, rehearsal, and ceremony on Wednesday the 11th. Finals for our underassmen

047start on Monday and run through Thursday, marking June 13th as the last official day of school. On Wednesday night, starting at 10 p.m., seniors will have their annual Safegrad party. And we want to thank all of the parents who volunteered to plan and raise money for Safegrad over the past year. Over the past two weeks, our sports teams have entered into their championship seasons, uh, including boys and girls tennis, ba baseball, girls track and field, and girls golf. On Sunday, the girls track and field team competed at the Class L championships, and we had 11 athletes earn awards at this event. Last week, we held our annual strikeout cancer softball game at the Hall and Connor matchup in honor of Hall softball player Jackie Hammad, West Hartford youth softball coach Kristen Carrera, and Abby Zatune,

048the daughter of our former former principal, Mr. Zatune. The hall softball team raised funds at the game for the Abigail Zatune Family Foundation. Over in the music department, our choir, band, and orchestra had their spring concerts throughout the past few weeks, and our select choir, the Coralers, had their annual year aid concert yesterday. The Hall band also participated in the Memorial Day parade last Monday as a marching band. On Thursday the 22nd, we held a public safety fest event where people who work in various public safety careers came in to do demonstrations and talk with our students. Also, the Black Student Union held their cultural night on May 28th, which was a very successful event. Last Friday, Hall held an installation celebration for our our new mural in the courtyard. This Elevate Wiiha mural project

049was led by Hall students with Rise Up for Art and the West Harford Prevention Partnership. This project not only adds color to our courtyard, but also celebrates the many voices of our students and community. We also recently celebrated our three class of 2025 seniors that will be joining the military. Matthew Castro, Jamie Roman, and Donovan Ravenberg. As we wrap up our last few days of school, we want to thank all of our Hall faculty who have helped to make this a successful school year full of student celebrations and accomplishments. I also want to thank all of you for the opportunity to serve as hall student representative this year. It was an honor to represent my school and community. Next year, Kayla Gia will be the hall student representative and knowing her and the kind of

050student and person she is, I know she will be an amazing representative. Thank you, Sarah. And we'll have some comments for you as well. Thank you, Alexis. Please share what has been going on at Connard. Um, happy June. With less than two weeks left of school and actually one day left for the seniors, things are both hectic and starting to wind down at Connard. Connard's math team competed and placed fifth out of 25 central CT schools. Sophomore Rouan Lee placed second and senior Hershel Ureabelli placed third. Congratulations to both mathletes as they represented Connecticut on the All State Math team at the American Region Mathematics League competition this past weekend. Furthermore, congratulations to our quiz bowl team for placing in the top 20% of teams at the 2025 High School National Championship. Special shout out

051to senior Charles Hate, who was named a tournament all-star and placed within the top 40 students. Congratulations to Dominic Amaro, Archangel Royo, Jaden Brainard, Sophia Pereira, Arian Ibrahim, and Josh Richardson who were honored at our military inductee dinner. This special evening recognized students who plan to serve in the armed forces after graduation. We are also deeply grateful to Sam Urick and our incredible solo choir singers who performed at the event. These students were also recognized at our grade 11 and 12 awards night. A heartfelt thank you to Alex Harveiel and Juan Million and all the dedicated educators who supported our future educators of diversity pinning ceremony. Five students were pinned at town hall on Thursday symbolizing their commitment to service and future careers in education. Kudos to Heather Biotti Dit and Holly Diario for their

052exceptional coordination of the National Honor Society ceremony. Thank you also to Tara Aaylor for being our keynote speaker. It was a powerful celebration of student leadership, scholarship, service, and community involvement. There were 132 students inducted. Additionally, with junior prom taking place on Friday, we'd like to extend our gratitude for the incredible work and support from our junior prom staff. Your dedication made the event a success. A special thank you to Ashley Thorough and Cindy Vanic, as well as all of our adults in attendance. Thank you to nurse Molly as well for providing extra support to our students. Thank you to Megan Cersmo and Beth Beach for organizing the junior and senior awards which took place last Wednesday. And additionally, thank you to Jason Seagull for presenting sports awards at that same event. A special shout

053out to Megan for her outstanding work planning our principal scholar breakfast. And we appreciate Megan Kaepernick and Colleen Chos for putting together a wonderful celebration of achievement at the Latin Awards. And finally, amazing news from the Halo Awards. Our Town directed by Hunter Parker won best play and we brought home two individual acting awards from Shannon Dalton and Dileia Canary. and Puffs won best props thanks to Ruhi and Mickey Adams. Bravo to our talented theater students and staff. Tomorrow they will host the acting to thespian awards followed by the Wonies which are at Cedric on Thursday. And our improv group Parachute will also take the blackbox stage for the last time this year on Friday. With teams finishing up their seasons, there's lots to celebrate in the athletic world. We had two CCC championship tournament

054winners. Congratulations to girls lacrosse and coaches Meg Cersasimo and Rob Sersimo as well as boys volleyball and coaches Carrie Roller and Doug Sakorski. The girls golf CCC championship tournament took place today and Connor placed eighth in the conference. On Saturday, we proudly celebrated the raising of the Connard boys hockey banner in honor of their back-to-back championships. Thank you to Jason Seagull and Kristen Manini for making this event so meaningful. Lastly, graduation will be on June 11th at 5:00 PM with Safeguard following that that night. Congratulations to all the seniors on all of your hard work and dedication to get here. And I'd like to reiterate what Sarah said. Thank you for having us this year. Well, the thanks goes to the both of you. And with that, we'd like to now share some words of

055farewell to you both. And would like first my colleagues to have an opportunity to do so. If we can start to make our way around. I really appreciate all the great reports that you both gave and um whenever you had the opportunity to share your voice was very important in some of the discussions. So good luck to you on your adventures ahead and thank you for the commitment that you made this year. So thank you both for your service. I mean this is on top of everything else that you do on top of all the school work. Um you both are very impressive individuals. um you're a credit to your schools, your community, your families. Um I know you're both heading to Yukon, so we can't wait to hear what's next for for you both.

056I'm sure it's really bright. So, thank you both. [Music] Um yeah, I just have been so incredibly impressed with your grace. You're you're so sharp. You're so fast with your updates. like you just knock all those out and it's so much uh thing so many things to celebrate but the way that you are the messenger of all things on behalf of your studio student bodies is just a real testament to I think our school system and to the voices that you both have and I'm really excited to hear about where you go next um and all wish you all the best of luck at Yukon go Huskys and just want to say too that I have two daughters in fifth and eighth grade and I hope that they uh turn out to be as wonderful

057young women as you do. So, thank you. I am so proud of you two, queens, and the way that you came into this role. I you know, a lot of times when I would speak up about things, I'd be looking out the corner of my eye to see if you were feeling it to know like, is this am I advocating for them in the right way? And I would see y'all nodding and smiling and I'm like, yeah. So, I just um I thank you for your presence because you are the reason why we're up here. And um as young powerful women um at this table, but at all the tables that you're going to be at, I want to encourage you to continue to let your light shine bright. Continue to allow your voices to

058be amplified and to just be you. Go into these spaces, go to Yukon, um and be your authentic self. You don't have to shape shift. You don't have to change up. Like you you kick down those doors and you show up as yourself and it's going to be more than enough. I'm so proud of both of you and I look forward to seeing you again because I know this is just the beginning of our relationship. Um, thank you for your participation throughout the year. Um, it's always interesting to for me to hear what the students have to say because that's why we're here and I wish you the best for next year and all of college and hopefully for whatever you do after that. So, thank you again. So, thank you. I just echo what

059all my colleagues have said. It's been a pleasure to serve with you guys. I really appreciate um you taking the time out of your busy schedules to be here at the meetings. You really have been quite diligent about being here. Um like some other um my other colleagues said, I enjoy listening to what's going on in the schools. Um thank you um again for all the time and I wish you both uh tremendous success next year at Yukon. And I second as well all that has been shared. You both have done a wonderful job representing your schools throughout the school year and you have represented quite well. I also agree that the way that you shared what has been happening within your schools was so well informed. We learned something new every single time and

060to know that you both are well-rounded individuals because you have many extracurricular activities you are a part of yet you still remained committed to serving in this capacity. You have made us proud. You will continue to make us proud and thank you so much for all that you do and many blessings to you. We have a small token here that is from our board but want to first collectively give a round of applause for serving in this way. All right. And let us now continue to unfinished business which we have none of. So we shall go to new business regarding the non-lapsing unexpended education fund account. seeking a motion that the board of education establish a non-lapsing unexpended education fund funds account in accordance with section 10-248A of the Connecticut general statutes and authorize the

061deposit of unexpended funds from the general fund appropriation for education into said account at fiscal year end. Is there a motion? So move. Thank you Shannon and second E. I heard you as well Ethan. Second Ethan. Thank you very much. discussion. Passing it over to you, Liz. Thank you. Paul, is there anything you want to say? If I may, just before we begin, uh I do want to take a point of privilege and both um recognize Liz Huitt. This is her last meeting with us as our director of finance. And it is a great privilege to welcome our incoming uh director of finance, Miss Barbara Rua, um who is no stranger to us here in the district. uh she has been serving diligently. She has experience on both the town side and the board of

062education side and she has as I think you saw in an earlier announcement from me extensive experience um in budget finance accounting at the state level. Um these two are are some of the finest uh folks that I've known. They make my job easy and uh I I I'm so happy that you know while I'm losing a very trusted friend and colleague, I'm I'm so excited to welcome someone I can trust equally. Um and it we're in just great shape. So I want to acknowledge Barbara. I want to acknowledge Elizabeth. [Applause] Thank you very much. I appreciate that. Uh with regard to the resolution that you have before you um as you mentioned it relates to establishing a non-lapsing unexpended education funds account um legislation was changed in May of 2024 which allows board of

063educations to set up a non-lapsing unexpended um education fund account. That's a very tricky title. Um whereas in the past it used to uh be the town's responsibility to set up such an account. But now that we have the opportunity to do so and given that it is likely that we will have a surplus at year end and as we all know we have dealt with some volatility and uncertainty um both from unexpected costs as it relates to special education as well as reimbursement funding from the state. We thought it was prudent at this time to establish such an account and to deposit at year end any uh unexpended funds that we have uh for fiscal year 2425. So that's our background but I'm happy to answer any specific questions you may have. Thank you

064teammates questions comments regarding what is before us. Again, we did have discussion about this through the budget process and complete upon completion of the budget process, but certainly do want to extend an opportunity for additional comments if need be. Claire, um could you help me understand if um say there's budget cuts in the next budget and then there's a balance in the non-lapsing. Um what would stop that non-lapsing from being depleted to cover the budget cuts? I I'll start. Um so certainly where we've had and we've had some history you know we have had uh non-lapsing account in the past and generally speaking what we will do is early in the fiscal year um we will look at an appropriation that all of you as the board of education have responsibility and oversight for you

065would vote for that um you would vote for monies from our non-lapsing account to be put into uh the general fund make an amendment essentially to our overall budget um and and we have our practice has And we typically look uh to do that early on in the school year around October, November time frame uh based on an assessment of where the budget is and and any needs. Obviously, we know this is our last meeting uh of the school year publicly uh at the state level. You know, they're finalizing uh some of their budgetary decisions and then at the federal level, I think there's uh still information to come out. So, by the time we get into the new school year, we're going to have a much clearer picture of where things are. And we

066will bring to you recommendation early in the fall as to how to best utilize funds uh so that we're fiscally responsible and so that um we're able to continue to support the educational services that the town expects. Any other questions? Gale. So, if I can just follow up on Claire's question. So, if we were to take money out of this nonlapsing fund, that would come to the board and there would be a board vote before any of that money was correct. Okay. I just want to make sure on that. Um I my I just had one other question. Is it I just want to remind myself um and maybe my colleagues monies that are saved in the nutritional services cannot be put into that fund. That is correct. So any um revenues that are received

067through the nutrition services fund must remain in that fund. So they are not able to go into the non-expended um non-lapsing fund. They must remain in the nutrition services fund and they are then available for expenditure in future years. So they we don't have to return them anywhere. Correct. Okay. Thanks. And if I could just add on to one answer um as you look at the actual um excerpt from the legislation uh that's printed in your book. Uh it does specifically say that each expenditure from this account will be made only for education purposes and that each expenditure must be authorized by the local board of education. So in order to be in compliance with the state statute, we need to come back um have you pass a resolution to designate how those funds will

068be spent. Gail, were you all set? Okay. All right. Any other questions or comments? All right. Excuse me. All right. With the motion on the floor, all of those in favor say I. I. I. Any oppose? Any abstain? The eyes have it. Thank you. We'll save the the p farewell to you. And know we see you at the end of the meeting as well. So, thank you. But Barbara, wonderful to see you. Now moving on to staff communications and reports where we shall receive our superintendence report. So passing it to Mr. Vinus. Thank you very much. Um a very happy June. Welcome to June. Welcome to the end of our school year. Um I would like to also point out it is uh pride month this month. Um and that is something that we uh

069do recognize and celebrate not only in the town with our schools with the flying of the pride flag. So, um, wanted to point that out to all. I want to welcome Ammani as well. I'm glad to have her and acknowledge Charlotte and thank you very much, uh, for your service here at the board. Um, to Alexis and Sarah, I wanted to just uh, I'll just quickly say thank you. Um, but I want to say that you two are now uh very seasoned constituents and so I do hope that you'll take opportunity upon your um time at Yukon to come back to West Harford and talk to me personally about uh your experience there and how well prepared you are. That's that's dramatically important feedback to us. Um and uh I feel like you guys uh

070you know you've you've certainly got my ear and I and and uh and I trust anything that you would have to share. So, I would just make that invitation. And before I get into my report, I take one last privilege. And I just want to acknowledge Dr. Morrow who's in the audience. This will be his uh last board of education meeting and report. And as I've shared, um he is uh just been an incredible leader for us in the district. um and and his loss is a dramatic loss of institutional knowledge of of wisdom. Um and I just want to give him my personal thanks for everything that he has done. Um that said, I'll I'll jump into my report. Um very exciting uh today uh and unplanned uh kind of last minute visit from

071our governor to Connard High School uh this this morning. Um he Conor uh Governor Ned Lamont visited Connard. He made a short announcement to wish the seniors well to wish everyone good luck on exams. But then he took opportunity took about 45 minutes uh and he met with just over two dozen students uh a number of them from um Connard's um student council and and other students from a variety of different student leadership groups and just sort of was uh asking students their opinions on um world events, state events, um what was top of mind for them, what their interests were. And I was so dramatically impressed with the level of conversations that our students were able to have. Um, as was the governor. He he he took a moment to mention on leaving how,

072you know, he'll go to places and and the typical student, a little bit shy, a little bit reluctant to ask a question. Um, he said that that the West Harford students were just a powerhouse. Uh, they came, they had very intelligent questions, they had good opinions. Um and uh and it was just a just a great opportunity. So I was very excited to see that. Um another element of kudos earlier in May of this year, the National Association of Music Merchants Foundation once again named West Hartford as among the best communities in music education, presenting them with an award by that name. Um we've earned this recognition multiple times based on our unwavering commitment to create an environment where every child can learn and grow with music. It is certainly one of the pillars of

073the community. Um, and we're so excited to uh to have that again. And it just uh allowed me to to me to mention, I believe it came up in in Sarah's report a while back, but Hall senior Khloe Madrich was selected as one of only 23 student musicians nationwide to participate in the National Youth Orchestra Jazz Concert at Carnegie Hall. That will be upcoming, I believe, this summer. Um, and this program assembles remarkable musicians to come together every year to engage in rigorous training residency with world-class jazz masters. Um, I had the privilege to see Khloe play at the recent pops and jazz and just kudos to our music program overall. Kudos kudos certainly to Hall. Very excited for that. Um, you heard so many different uh team things and sports things and individuals that

074were being recognized by our by our high school uh representatives. I wanted to bring out some middle school. The following students were recently recognized as CAS uh student award banquetss as CAS scholar leaders. Uh we had Bristo 8th graders uh Divani Matthew and Micah Pat. We had King Phillip scholars uh Dia Sanavi and William Bloomquist Jordan and we had uh Sedwick scholars Elijah Warren Jalobi and Emily O Sullivan um recognized. So kudos to them and congratulations for that recognition. Um the hall mural was mentioned. Uh I did want to talk about we continue to fill some open positions within our leadership team. So, some other welcomes. I'm very happy to announce the appointments of Win Colombano as assistant principal at Hall High and Sonia Stemer as assistant principal at King Phillip. Um, we have announcements

075coming shortly regarding Aken Elementary School. Uh, as well as uh ongoing uh searches that are occurring for Webster Hill and the assistant principal position at Charteroka Elementary. So, more to follow in the short term. I wanted to share uh I had the privilege to address some Quest students from across the district who were gathered at town hall this past week to attend the 4th annual meeting of the United Nations of Quest. This event promotes collaboration uh among students across our our different schools uh as they research different humanitarian issues um taking place across a range of countries. students develop ideas to solve real world problems, create concrete and visual models for their solutions and then prepare and deliver a presentation. Um, and they were also quite articulate and u and quite inspiring. Um, an event

076that is upcoming uh this week Noah Webster House and the West Harford Historical Society will be hosting a dedication of the museum archive at the Noah Webster to be known henceforth as the Tracy M. Wilson West Hartford History Center in honor of Dr. Wilson's lifelong service to the West Hartford community, her passion for history and her dedication to the youth of this of this town. Um, and uh just so grateful for u for Noah Webster and the historical society for for making that honor. um under governance and policy related to some conversations we've had here and really to conversations that have been ongoing throughout the year. I I did want to share with the board and more so uh with the public uh that that myself along with our middle school principles and and mccernan

077uh we conducted some technology watch across our two larger middle schools uh in the last couple of weeks. Uh the intent was really to look at the degree of um screen time and usage uh not on cell phones. I do want to it it does seem at least uh just for clarity I want to make sure that everyone in the listening audience is well aware we do have a very well-established bell-to-bell no cell phone policy at our elementary schools and importantly at our middle schools and students at their middle school are not allowed to have their cell phones out during passing time. So I just wanted to offer that as a clarification in case there was any doubt from uh some of the comments. But uh there was some good conversation that came up earlier

078about you know the degree of screen time. Certainly we've seen some interesting things with screens. We've seen the uh as I've mentioned here at the table before we've seen the uh recent Tik Tok challenge with regard to screens and some other and some other issues. So, we we took a walk uh to kind of get a sense and to begin to uh gain an appreciation of uh the degree to which um Chromebook usage specifically at the middle school is an enhancement uh to a student centered learning environment andor not an enhancement. So, these are conversations that we are having. I just wanted to uh bring that out into the public venue uh so that so that folks had an awareness of that. Other than that, just uh I'll reiterate what was said. Our high school

079graduation uh for both Hall and for Connor will happen separately on those campuses on Wednesday, June the 11th at 5:00 p.m. And our last day of school for underassmen uh and across elementary and middle will uh be on Friday, June the 13th. Um and we and the schools will follow a an early release uh schedule. Obviously, the high schools will be on an exam schedule and to consult the individual schools for any questions on times. Pending any questions? That's my report for this evening. All right. Thank you very much. Teammates, any questions or comments regarding the superintendence update we received? Gail. Um, yeah, I just want was wondering if you could clarify since you you did talk about the Chromebooks. Um, do we have technology in the classrooms that um um allows the teacher to

080see what students are looking at on the Chromebooks because I I'm talking um I don't know if that would be you're asking about like GoG Guardian or similar type things. So, we have not gone to a GoG Guardian um to this point um simply because um it it's kind of a it's kind of a mixed bag and I appreciate the the utility of it and it's something that we've talked about for a while. Uh we do ask u you know the teachers to be um sort of navigating and it's and it's kind of a catch22. I can either situate my room and look at my assignments and uh you know attempt to monitor the the on task nature of of student behavior through proximity and walking around or I can do it from behind a

081desk while looking at a screen. So, um, while there is a utility to the GoG Guardian in terms of if I see something while I'm sitting behind my desk monitoring that student behavior, I can intervene very quickly by like shutting that down remotely, if you will, uh, by clicking it in the same way that if I'm if I'm walking and using proximity, I'm going to be, you know, having that face-to-face conversation with kids. So I I do recognize uh you know there are I think some benefits to that but there are also some drawbacks in terms of what we're doing and and and I'm glad for the question because it really sparks the more important question in my mind which is when we're utilizing those Chromebooks in a lesson um what's the degree to which

082that that utilization of technology is an enhancement to my instruction? what's the degree to which that it is u serving a purpose um in terms of purposeful instruction um andor you know and or is it not so this this to me is I think some of the big conversation I know I think we've come a long way from where we were if I think about you know my tenure here in the district um you know even 10 years ago with the comfort of teachers integrating technology into their classroom utilizing some of the tools that we've certainly promoted and still want to promote a Google classroom a kind of a digital repository where where students can find all of their assignments and things of this nature. But I think we can also refocus and reframe to

083say all right now when we're using technology in the classroom number one what's the frequency but like let's get back to a question of um an assurityity of purpose and and is the purpose of that technology uh useful to where I even need to use it. So I'm more concerned with why are we using technology than I am necessarily with um close monitoring. I you know I can get close monitoring through through purposeful through purposeful employment and integration clear. Um, one aspect though of the software is not just monitoring but locking into the task that they're supposed to be in. So there's a way to limit which sites they can go to or which program they can be in. Um because as a teacher, especially when you're trying to help those students that need the

084extra help, it's very hard to pay attention to the students that might be navigating off into other areas. No, absolutely. Listen, there are there are tons of pros and tons of cons, and I'm I'm uh I can tell you that I haven't made the decision to go to it yet, but I'm not close to the decision. Um, I would also tell you that there are 105 different YouTube videos on how to defeat Gogg Guardian. Um, so it's it it's a mouse trap and every time you know, everyone wants to build a better mousetrap. Um, and you know, it's human nature to find the ways around it. So, um, I certainly it's certainly a tool. It's certainly something that we should discuss, but like anything else, I don't want to pretend that it's the panacea uh

085that's going to solve all all of the issues. Uh I think that that um there are are very I think we can go that direction. I'm not I'm not going to close the door on it, but I think I can have a more impactful um a more impactful kind of a conversation with with teachers in around u instructional design, Jason, and then Latoya. So, it sounds like you had a few days that you guys were walking around the classrooms and and things like that. What's next in in this process? Is is there more is there a formalized process of of how you evaluate that, how we move forward, you know, a report out to us about, you know, are we overutilizing this? Are we overrelying on it? Do we need, you know, additional systems to

086to safeguard against internet access? Those types of things. I mean, I would keep the board up to date on on anything, especially if we went in that direction. Um clearly there's a lot of um we've been having you know we invited um conversation in and around digital usage. We hosted uh workshops and events uh at our schools uh related to this topic. We we brought in uh uh Zach um his last name just fell out of my head, Zack from u it was the hall graduate who's the lead researcher and Jonathan hates book. U we brought him in uh and did uh presentations at our schools. I can remember I I heard a someone at public comment saying we should we should be hosting um showings of um screenagers which you know gave me pause

087because we've hosted showings of screenagers every year for the last three or four years. Um and you know so so this is a topic that is very much on our minds as educational leaders as well and very pleasantly to see on the minds of our parents and I think that uh more conversation uh will be had both internally for the district in terms of what our best direction is um how we provide professional development kind of how we attack some of this at the school level and we're happy to provide you those updates at the board but I think I would like to the um continued conversation around this topic as a community because uh there was an interesting comment made today that I wrote down. You know um if we went to a ban

088and again I just want to clarify for the listening public that's a conversation about high school. If we went to a ban at the high school um at least we would be giving students an 8 to 10 hour break. And I say, if this problem is so significant, um, is it really the the 8 to 10 hour break that occurs at the school that's going to solve it for us, or is this a larger community conversation that we need to have, especially, you know, when we read the book, The Anxious Generation, especially about the our youngest and most impressionable children. Um, and I and I'm a I'm a firm believer as a as a as a father, as a grandfather, you know, I've I've gotten to be a parent during this period of time where

089uh smartphone technology first emerged. So, I've got to see I've got to see all of this in real time with my own children and now kind of seeing, you know, my own grown daughter navigate these waters as a parent. And so, I I I share uh strong feelings about it. Um but uh but it's a bigger conversation than just schools. And so I think it's important for us to uh to continue to have dialogue about it and to find ways um to have forums and to and to decide, you know, where we want to go. Um for for me, uh I know we already have the protections in place uh at elementary level. I know we have the cell phone protections in place at our middle school level. Um, I want to review uh what

090we're doing with technology and screen time at our middle school. Um, I see a difference. I see a difference from our screen time at middle school versus high school. Um, and and I appreciate there's a difference in student maturity and there's a difference in content engagement. And I think I think we can make some positive steps there that would uh that would benefit um our education and would benefit um students in general. And I and I'm open to seeing where the rest of the dialogue goes. Just as a followup, any ideas on what the disconnect might be between, you know, what we've heard about the the concerns in the middle school versus we we have this bell-to-bell policy at the middle school level. Uh the disconnect um perhaps the disconnect I you know I I'll

091speak only for myself when my children were in middle school and we'd sit down at the dinner table and I'd say, "What'd you learn today?" Um and there was always a disconnect. I never got the articulate explanation of exactly how things were. Um so I think um I think you know we're a big system. We can do a better job as a district to make sure that we're um explaining and promoting you know what is happening. But at the same time there is you know in my mind there's a valid uh concern and criticism that's brought up about you know if if you look at the exposure that students are having to screen time throughout the entirety of their day. That was great feedback and that was, you know, something that I perked up my

092ears on and wanted to go get uh kind of a kind of a firsthand account of uh to see are there enhancements and improvements that we can make. Latoya. Yeah, I think I just wanted to speak to um you know, thinking about the technology and your point around like monitoring it because you're walking around versus putting guard rails on and monitoring from behind a screen. And I think it's, you know, your comment is very in alignment with what our district is aspiring to be, which is a restorative district that's not punitive. And I think you know when we just throw guard rails on and we you know try to control students in that way we move to the punitive. And I think you know your point around walking around the space and having um having

093that time and like interfacing with students that is in alignment with West Hartford public schools because that's relational. And I think that's that's what I want to lift up is the relationship piece. When teachers have strong relationships with their students, there's less less of a chance of students going off task. Um, and I think a a a guard rail on a computer um it it's not not even on the same playing field as a rel as a solid um trusting mutual relationship between a teacher and their students. Um so I wanted to say that and I think that's one of the strengths that we have here is the relationships between teachers and students. I think yeah so I just wanted to speak to that and the other thing um around the you know just again

094with the technology and the cell phones that I listen it starts at home starts at home. Um yeah you know I know people might not like that I'm saying this but it starts at home. um and goes back to relationships that parents have with their with their kids and the guardrails that you set as a parent and the trust that you've built with your child. Um and you know, you have I was very strategic with my child about when a cell phone was put into her hand. Um and the different levels that she's had to graduate to with the certain things with that phone. And so I think we can't I we can't rely on the school system to do the parenting. If you've got the solid relationship with your kid, then like you said,

095the 8 to 10 hour break isn't coming during the school day because it's already infused because they have their relationship with you and they know they're not supposed to be on their phone plus the policies we have in place. And then whatever guard rails you have in place at home. But like also parents are addicted to their phone. So if you're on your phone 247 in your kid's face, just saying. So I think, you know, I get it, but I think a lot of this starts at home. And I think it's all centered around relationships when it comes to, you know, a couple of these concerns. And so I want to just bring us back to the basics there. Thank you though. Other questions or comments? R Gale. All right, I just want to clarify

096just because my kids are long gone from school and I, you know, we didn't have this kind of stuff when they were in school, but in the elementary school, kids do have access to Chromebooks. And if they do, are there I'm assuming it's the same as the middle and the high school where there really are no uh guard rails right now. I'm just trying to clarify that they're there. Kids do have there are Chromebook carts at our elementary school and you know by virtue of our state testing platform you know there's a responsibility to teach the kids keyboarding by grade three because that is when uh they'll have uh their state assessments which are delivered online. Um that said you know the teachers are in control of that technology when it comes out. Um it's,

097you know, it's it's a pretty controlled environment in terms of um what an elementary classroom looks like with um the students, you know, being on task. It's um it's also I would want to share that there's a lot of filtering that occurs and anything that's being used within the Chromebook and I think generally speaking not all kids but the majority of kids are u you know at that age level um depending on their experience in their personal lives you know are are staying on test. they don't necessarily have all of the same savvy, technological savvy to try to to try to beat systems um that I think they eventually learn as they get older. Um I'm sure there are students that that will prove me wrong on that, but um um you know, I I

098I wouldn't want you to have the impression that there's a dramatically unsafe online environment for children at the at the uh elementary level. Um and I think that that by and large our curriculum at the elementary level um you know with with the singular teacher it and the sing you know so so you're with that child essentially for the full day you as the teacher have a lot more awareness of the amount of time that you're that you might be spending on the computer computer the amount of time that you're spending say reading or writing the amount of time that you're doing purposeful play whereas it's it's a greater challenge at the middle school uh I'm I'm seeing the student for 45 minutes and what I happen to be doing in terms of technology integration

099on a Monday. Um I might not know the degree to which the student is interfacing in their social studies and their science and their language arts um without you know very intentional conversation about that at the team time. We have structures to better support our teachers with sharing that information. And so that's that's one of the one of the immediate areas of focus that I want to I want to just kind of raise the awareness of of our staff about that and get those conversations happening at the middle level um so that there aren't unintentional consequences of um overexposure. Shannon. Um, so I'm just curious if there's any plan to also do tech walks at the high school level just to see how the in between class time experiences and if you see kind of

100a decrease or dip in students interacting with each other in the hallways or during lunchtime because I think that information would be really helpful to inform this conversation. Absolutely. And so I did uh I did some um purposeful technology walks at the high school. I have to remember it was perhaps it was in March. It was late in the year and I was curious, you know, we had this, you know, we had this um guidance that was published by the state at the beginning of this year about policy and there was a lot of talk about it and you know, we were going to workshops on it and all of that and and so at the beginning of the year there's a lot of focus on the uh off and away and you know only

101during only during uh unstructured times like like a study hall or or a lunch period or in between in classes and I wanted to see it was still sticking in March. Um, and I was pretty pleasantly surprised that by and large, um, and I and I only did one of the two high schools. I didn't get to both high schools. Um, but I've heard I've heard more about, hey, what well, what about the socialization at, uh, cafeteria? And I've and I've since had conversations with the two principles and um both of the principles are looking at or already have looked at um things that they're putting into place uh or maybe already have some in place in terms of um some games that kids can play. Um some puzzle stations, some things things that are

102that are intended to be um no tech and socialbased interactions and and trying to get a more deliberate effort at that. And and again, I think as we continue to have these conversations, it's very much a hot topic. I think we'll have conversations about this in the coming year. I'll be happy to give you guys a more formal kind of a presentation of what that looks like. Yeah, I just wanted to say quickly and um yeah, might not be uh too much of a arm twist with Hall because Hall has horrible cell phone reception. There is no service at Hall. So, like I don't know what y'all did there, but it's perfect. There's no service. You might be good there. All right, Claire. Yeah. Um, just from an elementary teacher's perspective, there are a lot

103of restrictions on what sites you can go to and things that are flagged. And every year I had to get special permission for certain projects because I needed the kids to go there for data and they would open up that site um so that the kids could go there but it would lock down as soon as the project was done. Um so there's a lot more restrictions um at the elementary site and you also have the ability you can through it find out where people have gone. Everybody who signs into a Chromebook has an identification and that identification has a history and so all of that's available um through the IT department. Any other questions or comments regarding our superintendence update? All right. Well, lots of discussion regarding this topic. We know more to come.

104But before we transition, I do want to also formally acknowledge the gentleman in the back who's looking down. Dr. Morrow, I want to publicly say again to you, thank you so much for all that you have done to support the district. Uh we are honored to have served with you. We wish you well as you begin a new chapter and thank you so very much again. Again, a round of applause, please. All right. And now we shall proceed. Yes. to the next item on the agenda, staff reports and board discussions where we shall receive the equity advancement in the West Hartford public schools and passing it to our superintendent who will transition to those presenting. Absolutely. Thank you very much. So, uh very pleased every year to be able to present this kind of an

105endofear uh report about our efforts under equity advancement. um no stranger to you, Miss Theresa Wrangler, our executive director of equity advancement. And um I'll take privilege to introduce her team who I think you've seen here before, Miss Shaina Gray, Mrs. Amanda Gooler. Um they are uh the uh terrific trio that uh really drive a lot of the work um here in the district and excited to have them present this report. Good evening everyone. Uh as always excited to be here. Uh before you I have as Paul mentioned my two colleagues um and um we're actually missing a third um uh Amy who who um was unable to be with us this evening um she's our open choice liaison but um she sends her her well wishes and um of course any questions that I'm

106not able to respond to I will definitely forward to her. So um thank you. Good evening. Um so I'm going to give you a little bit of an overview. Um, I tried to be as uh detail oriented, sorry, in the report. I know I was, as I looked, I was like, that's a lot of pages, Teresa. Um, but I wanted to make sure that I gave you as much information as possible, but I'll give you I'll um kind of orient us to our our time together this evening. Um, so I'll give an overview of come some of the work that we've done. Uh, then we'll move into family and community engagement, uh, multilingual family engagement. I will cover Amy's part on open choice program engagement. um and then talk a little bit about the future

107um forward work that we will be doing um within the department. Uh and I wanted to kind of ground us in a bit of a a better understanding about what it is that we actually do uh within our department. And I know there's all these um little pieces um of the puzzle that we we kind of do. It's like this weird feedback going. I don't know what that is. um but you know a deeper understanding and really um what this department is all about and what we um strive to do is is connections. We strive to make connections. Um we are we are connecting people um through language access. We are connecting people through you know um access if you know for ability levels. you know, our job really is to to find um ways

108that access is being denied to people and and and kind of um eliminate those barriers or have conversations around them. Uh and so in in a lot of ways, the work that we do um is is continues to be a conundrum from for quantifying, which is why we've kind of shifted to the model that you we saw that at the last board meeting when we talked about EDC. So we can actually have some very pointed target areas where people can kind of you know have a problem of practice, examine the data, go through the full process and we continue to do that um holistically as a department um but also as we look at the work that we do with um individual schools um and so we're all about connecting. So we kind of um

109framed our our presentation this evening around connections. And so you have like a lot of things up there and I'm just going to kind of lift a couple of them as we go through. Um points of connection that we that we've focused on this school year. Um the first one I'm going to actually talk about is our our maintenance staff. Um we have had the pleasure of working with our maintenance staff twice this school year. We did so earlier in I believe it was in November. Um was it November? I can't remember what. Um but early in the year. Um and then um in part of that is like looking at street data and talking to to our maintenance staff um and really kind of getting a better understanding of um a sense of belonging

110and whether or not they felt like they had a sense of belonging and what it meant to belong. Uh because every element and every person who who interfaces with our students um is a key lever in in the work that we do. Um and you know I learned a lot uh by meeting with them. Um, I learned that they um, you know, they gave lots of really good feedback about how connected or not connected they felt uh, and what helped them feel more connected. And so we, you know, we spent um, a good day with them and then took that feedback that they they gave us and then we we went back to the drawing board and I re-engaged with their leadership um, and had great conversations about um, how do we build that connectivity?

111And so we actually designed a day um early in the spring uh to to work with them. And one of the things that they had surfaced is that they don't necessarily feel connected um even with each other, right? Depending on what schools you are, what like whether you're dayshift, night shift, all of that. Um, and so we actually crafted a day of of of working with them to to give them some team building um skills and and communication um skills and activities. And um really um you know that's what I look at as the work that we do, right? We ask people what they think. We ask people how they're feeling. We ask them what makes it better. And then we have to take that data and do something with it, right? And so we

112were able to do that. Um and it was um a joy to be with them. I had happened to be Amanda and I happened to be in the game room with them and you you'd be amazed how hard it was to get people to actually like release into enjoying a game together. And these are these are our staff. Um, and one of the things I'm I'm a real believer in is if we can't if we can't do it with adults, I don't trust that you're going to do it with children. Um, if we can't allow adults to feel connected and and and ask them what helps them feel like they belong and then take that feedback and use it. um then how how do we model that for doing that with children and adults to

113kind of need to see it, believe it in order to kind of engage in that work. And so um that's a major focus for us as we continue this work. Um I'm going to kind of just pick like one or two from each section just to talk about. Um you know, I've had the pleasure of spending lots of time with our students. Um it's a joy. Um they they they challenge me um to to to think, to to listen. um and to reconsider and to kind of and really look at their perspective because we all do this work for them. Um so I've um I had I'll just talk, you know, storytelling, but I'll um talk about a meeting that I had. I was invited to come into Hall um high school to talk with

114their BSU um so Black Student Union. Um the group had brought me. They wanted to have a conversation. They want to have a conversation in particular around um consequences and and you know looking at um racial slurs and the consequences of of racial slurs and and and really we engaged in this really amazing dialogue. Um you know it it was [Music] um eye opening to get their perspective. Um it pushed us as adults. I went with along with their their principal um interim at the time, but uh Sarah and I went in and and had a conversation with them and we really kind of um tried to help kind of do some perspective taking for both both sides of a discussion that we were having. Um and for me like it matters that students understand

115that their voices were heard. um that it impacted, you know, the adults in the room to kind of go back and have conversation and talk about, you know, as we enter into this, you know, this summer, can let's talk about how do we talk to students about slurs? How do we talk to students and how do we proactively teach um about these things? And so, we've we've done a lot of background work and um to to build out some some opportunities uh that we're going to engage in for next year. um but also taking a look at um when things are said, you know, context for how they're said. Uh one of the conversation points that we had um when talking with students is um this idea that you know certain groups like so um

116if I was part of the LGBTQ plus group um is it okay for me to use the f-word because it's a word that we use or if I was a part if I if I'm a black student, is it okay for me to use the nword? um you know and we we you know we we have that whole discussion and I think that one of the things that students are um are really eager for is honest discussion from adults like it's not like I want you to tell me yes because I want the answer yes and and I want it my way but can you listen to me and can you hear um our perspective and what we feel about it and then in return what I ask from them is can they understand our

117perspective uh and so we had some really hard conversations and it was um but it was good because you know we I asked the simple question of okay so if we say that if you're a certain color you can use a certain word um what does that mean when in who's determining who right for let's say it's the n word right that's who's determining who's black enough to use that word right and that's a real big conversation so we we've talked about it and then you know as we're having our lovely little debate I pull out a picture of my grandson he's he's a quarter black I'm 100% black my husband's Mexican married a a you know a a very fair-skinned Puerto Rican. He's about Paul's color, Paul's, you know, he comes in, right? But

118he's black, right? He will be raised um you know, um by how we uh interpret um race, he will be raised with the values and the beliefs and and and upbringing of of a black child, right? And so is is he g is am I supposed to trust that that anyone here is going to recognize him on site as being, you know, a person of color? And so he's allowed to say that. And so we have these really um deep conversations. And I and I want, you know, as a district, if we say that we are willing to kind of lean in to listening to students, um then we have to be willing to have the hard conversations and we have to be willing to have the hard conversations with parents and we have to

119be willing to have the hard conversations with our community. Um, and kind of where I where you know we landed is I you know I told the students listen under no circumstances can we allow slurs to be said in school like that is that is just what we have to do. However, we can have a conversation around context right around how it's used and and and look at that and and go kind of sit together with our leaders and have that conversation and make sure that we have an understanding um across our schools around this topic. Um and that's important for them, right? It's important for them to have heard that. It's important for them to for for me to have listened to them um and not just say nope absolutely not you're you know

120you're out of your minds we're not doing like they needed to understand right that there are that what was being asked is for now for people to police someone's color somebody's identity which is not something that we can do right and that's not something that we should do um but we can ask that we that when we are in our schools that we use kind words and that we um respect each other because quite frankly not all black people feel like that's a word that they were comfortable using or being called either, right? And so there's there's all these different complexities of thought. And so, um, you know, when we talk about the work that we do, um, in this department, these are the conversations you have to be willing to have. And these are

121the conversations we have. I have them with students, I have them with staff, I have them with parents, I have them with community members. Um, and if we're going to be if we're going to rise to our aspirations, we must be willing to have them. um and listen to each other. Um so that's my uh my storytelling about my student section. Um for um for families, we you know, I've gotten a chance to work with um a lots of families in some conflict resolution meetings, right? And being able to kind of talk through um and work when things go wrong. Like we there's so much that we do right as a district, but we're human and sometimes things don't go the way we'd like them to go. and being able to have those conversations and

122talk with parents and talk with families. Um, and I think as a community and as a society, we've forgotten how to just say we're sorry. And I think that's important, right? If something's going wrong, even if I'm not the person who did it, right? Just having that empathy and being willing to say, "Yeah, I'm sorry that this happened." Um, trust me, as a school system, we would love to be able to control uh what kids do. And if we have, you have to know that if we had a choice um and we're able to control um individual students actions, we would do it. Um but we're all, you know, we all have freedom of of of spirit and and um what we can do is try to be as proactive as possible, but also um

123when we react to make sure that we are um reacting from a space of of of love, of acceptance, and and making sure that kids know that um they can come back from mistakes that they've made, right? And that's the work that we continue to do. Um for regional partnerships, we have um there's a network of uh DEI directors and and whatever other titles that we have uh across the street state and we meet um we meet together often and uh one of the things that we do is we share um we share, right? I think I think it's really important that we're not all starting from um you know, scrap and that we we work together. And so the picture that you see in the middle is actually um the I was so in

124love with the book that I will I will give Paul credit but more importantly I'll go back to the librarian at Connard uh credit for the book accountable and um I had shared that with my network and I had shared that we had done this this um summer reading group and what we did was um collectively with Simsbury Farmington um and West Hartford we pulled teachers together and we actually had a really um great three hours together of talking about the book talking about the lessons that we took from the book. Um and then um I think what was really most the thing that was most powerful from that time together was the understanding that this was a book about, you know, a racial incident. But we could have we could have taken out race

125and it could have been uh an anti-semitic, you know, thing that had happened. It could have been um something about LGBTQ, you know, homophobic. It could have been it could have been anything. It wasn't the It wasn't what happened in the book that that made the book resonate. It was all the lessons that as a school district you can learn, right? We like we like to say that hindsight is 2020. Like this book feels like, you know, you can have an opportunity to learn from somebody else's mistakes and it's real story obviously. Um and so we we got together and we talked and um what we did is we kind of compiled this giant list of ideas of things that we could be working on proactively to make a difference and and how our students

126are um seeing each other as human beings. And we um took the opportunity to to create that giant list and then share that list out with all of us. And then our next step is to actually pull some of those items and work across communities because this isn't just about West Hartford, right? I I yes, I work for West Hartford, but we are more than just West Harford. We're we're a community. We're a state, right? And um and there's power in numbers. And so what we've committed to do is taking um our lessons learned and trying to kind of forge um some common practices that we can share across districts to to help combat some of this. But what you see on this page um you know, the power of the connections that we have

127uh in the work that we do. Um so these are quotes from different um you know stakeholders if you will um that just talk about how it's impacting them because this work isn't about um we do it it's great we check off the box you know we could we can go to a conference and present on it if it's not touching impacting and changing how people move then we're not doing our jobs right and so um for me it's really important that we that we continue to stay in this reflective process and that we give people the space um to learn to grow um into and to find um meaning right in the work that we do. So what you have there is a nice collection. I'll I'll send it to you guys so you

128don't have to read them all. Um but each part as we go through each of our parts um there there'll be this reflective point because again we believe that the work that we're doing is connecting people and the work needs to connect um because this isn't this um ironically isn't work that you can mandate right there has to be people have to want to do this work uh and so um how you present the work and how people you know connect to the work uh matters for whether or not it's going to actually um grow legs and and become who we are as a district. Um, and so with all the things that have been done, um, just some some key points of the deepening connections work that we want to continue to do, some

129things we want to offer up. Um, so we we need to really be mindful of making sure that we include all of our our staff, all of our touch points. Um, when it comes to um, the equity focused professional learning that we do, um, obviously I focus a lot on on teachers and on administrators. Um, but I but I do think that we need to we need to broaden our our impact. Um, and I'm super excited um to to kind of dally with this idea of a district-wide equity council for students. Um, I I think that um students have a lot to say. They have a lot to share. Um and much like ironically um the governor uh you know it's important to hear from students and for them to kind of be able to

130offer some um advice right on on on the work that we we do uh to make sure what we're doing is actually working. Um we I talked about this last time I was here um family learning sessions. Um so much of what you know parents are you know we could sit and complain and say hey you're not having the conversation at home with your kids. Um, but inevitably I've I've talked to so many parents who who are just asking for, okay, yeah, I'd do it if I just knew how to do it. And so we we feel like we owe that to to people to have those conversations. Um, and also some um some speakers we we um I was super excited. I won't announce now because I have to kind of solidify, but we

131were um today I received uh an email from a speaker that we had looked to engage last year and she reached back out and um wants to have the conversation and and wants to to to come to West Hartford. Uh and she's phenomenal. So I'm like I won't announce it until I can get this like totally like locked in there. Um but again having an opportunity to have some community base because this is not a West Hartford Public Schools issue that we when we're dealing with um the things that are popping up that that aren't the bright things that we can announce and be super excited about. These aren't things that are are just happening within our schools. Okay. Um these are um these are things that are happening uh in our community and more

132and more so. Uh and so our kids are not immune um to what they see and what they hear. um in and the things that are spoken sometimes in their homes, sometimes with their friends. Um and so we we have to kind of we have to tackle this as a community. Um not not necessarily just as a school district. Um so I at this point will turn this over uh to my friend Shaina. Almost forgot to turn off my mic. I'm turn on my mic. Hello everyone. So I get to oversee the family and engagement aspect of the office of equity advancement and I will speak a little bit to some of the touch points that I have been able to work on this year. So starting with students I have for the third year

133been able to partner with the University of um Hartford summer um place to provide enrichment camp opportunities. So a oneweek um experience full day camp for students across district to engage in um learning and as well as recreational um purposes. So that's partnering with the the building leaders and partnering with the clinical team to identify students who can benefit from that. So they um meet a criteria for students who might not have the opportunity to engage. As we all know, summer camp is expensive. So thinking about some of those factors that might impact students ability to engage and then being able to offer that opportunity for students. Another aspect of my student work was centered around having student voice in our one community. So I'll speak of one community a little bit later on, but

134um we increased from one student session last year to two this year. So we were able to have high school students come in in the beginning of the year and then we wrapped up the year with having elementary, middle and high school representation where we engage in dialogue with our students around how we can best support them and they are also gracious in providing feedback of how we can improve and how we are also able to support them. But we also incorporate a com um conversation around how they can support each other. Right? So we recognize that we're all playing part in this work and how are we each taking a role in making sure that we're supporting one another. Another aspect of my work is parent centered. So this year um what I did

135share was some of the resources from one of our our um workshop that I hosted recently on um screen tech and um habits at home for parents, right? Didn't know that we were going to have such a a large crowd out for that too. But in the aspect of thinking what skills and supports parents can utilize at home because we recognize that it's not only a school lift, we have to also be able to do that home and parents aren't sure how to do that especially for elementary students. So we engaged in a workshop where we were talking about um practical habits and things that they can implement at home and a lot of that working on moni modeling your own screen usage having open conversation around that with your students and just um breaking

136down the the barriers to conversation just co-atching. So things along that line practical strategies for elementary parents on how to monitor that at home and engage with their students because it is not easy. I know a lot of us have not I'm not quite a parent. a aunt that has to monitor my nephew's YouTube usage a lot, but thinking about ways to make sure that we are practicing at home what we want our students to embody. Another aspect of my work centered on providing a three-part series for um the EDI group across district. So, some of the parents who are new and up and cominging um facilitating EDI within our schools. So, that was a three-part series that I focused on the three aspects of um community building. So working on them, how to they

137um work with their groups. So if we're thinking about group work, we're not able to do the work if we're not able to set the foundation amongst one another. So identifying the mission for their EDI, clearly defining that amongst groups and also building relationships with the people that they're going to be doing the work with. So that was an aspect of that as long as thinking about partnership with your building leaders. So that is another partner in the work. So how are you scheduling the meetings? How are you engaging in that conversation? ensuring that there's open dialogue about what is happening in the building and how that can inform the works that you're doing for the parents that you're serving. And the last aspect of that was around engagement and um offering. So thinking about

138that through an equitable lens of access um resources and just overall the variety of events that we're offering. So we want to focus on connection. We also want to focus on knowledge and also deepening the work of equity because we are on different stages in our equity journey. So making sure we're hitting the key points for everyone that might be wanting to take part in the work that we're doing. You want to explain what EDI is? Oh, equity and diversity inclusion. So a lot of the schools within the district do have parentled groups that have been doing the work for several years, but their students have moved on, especially for elementary, right? We we do tend to see the parents age out, the students age out, and they move on to middle. So we do

139have um new parents are coming who want to take on the the work of um creating um supports for their parents. and how do you do that if you've never quite done that before? So providing some tips and strategies for that and that came from um feedback that came from the group. So they reached out to our office um in seek support and how to go about that and then working to create that um series to help support them to be able to to meet that need for their families and for themselves and support. Um, another aspect of my work is staff centered and uh we were able so Amanda Amy and I were able to go around in the beginning of the year and meet with all of our clinical teams and our principles

140just to share about our office, share about the work that we're doing and how we can partner with them. So from that we were also able to gather um trends and data that also inform some of the workshops and things that we were able to pro provide for families too. So that's another aspect of connecting with staff. But um for the second year I've been able to facilitate a CIT and I worked alongside Amanda because it was surrounding engagement and um family connection. So we provided a workshop for staff on thinking about deficit thinking around we're engaging with families, right? Because sometimes the way we think about engagement impacts how we are able to engage with the families. So how do we check our biases? How do we make sure we're aware of how we

141think about we're inviting families to the the table and how we're engaging them in ways that are meaningful for them. So, we engage in problem solving around engagement um barriers or things that might be coming up for the staff, but also thinking about the resources they're actively using to engage and sharing that amongst one another um as well as being informed of some of the um holes that pitfalls we might be having that we might not have district-wide um practices that are are in place to be able to respond to engagement. And then the last aspect of the work is community centered and a big component of that was one community. So um this is my second year being able to oversee that and the focus of this year was um implementing structures as well

142as just clearly um building visibility for one community because it is something that many people might not be aware of although it's there. So that has been centered on ensuring that all of our meetings are in the school newsletters. So they go out monthly to the school newsletters. We are um creating flyers for those events um inviting our one community partners and attendees to share with their um networks and from that we've been able to see two to three new attendees per meeting. So that is a testament to like some of the promotion and um advocate um advocate ways we've been advocating for that excuse me another aspect of that was centered around um having the meetings at different locations. So, we were able to get into different schools this year and that also provides

143um taking away the bear of maybe of location for some families because the school might be closer but also giving us an opportunity to see other schools because we don't often get to see out there. So, we are able to connect in building um and get to go around to different schools. We also implemented a logo as you can see in the top corner. That was another way students were involved in the work. Um that was a design from our hall um freshman. So he submitted the the logo design and then there was um a group involvement. So the words that are around our one community logo were selected by our larger group. So we did a poll and asked them what does one community mean to them? And the words that were selected was

144impact. It was knowledge. It was inclusion. And I'm missing one word. Connection. There we go. How could I forget connection? That's the theme of what we're doing tonight. But so that also invited the larger group to be a part of that. Um and then a last aspect of our one community piece was the agreements the agreements and expectations for our leaders. So we are always looking for new members to be a part of our one community umbrella. But when we're sitting at the table we wanted to make sure we clearly defined what one community is and why we're there so that we all could have a common understanding of what we are purposely doing as we come together as one community. All right. So my um points of connection in the center, this is actually

145one of two of our one community meetings that we have. So typically we break into two smaller groups and to provide um intimate conversations for us to be able to talk amongst each other. And at this table is a representation of all the people that are in um partnership for the work. So we have parents, we have community orgs, we have district leaders, we have um district teachers and we also have um community providers. So we are all engaging in ways of how we can best support students but also how we can best support one another in the work. And also these are feedback that was provided from various um events and um workshops that were provided this year through through my work and just kind of spotlighting the connection spotlighting the impact of the

146work. So I will leave that there so you all can maybe pick out some things to um to highlight as I speak of my work for next year. So that is to continue to expand one community making sure that we are not only just expanding that for the leaders but also for attendees. How are we making sure we're inviting um diverse voices to the table and having them being a part of such a an opportunity because where else do we get to connect teachers um district leaders community providers and um and students all in one space. So wanting to make sure that people who want to access that are able to do that. It is working on professional development for staff and best practices around family engagement and not just on the larger scale but

147day-to-day interactions. How are we building trust? How are we making sure that we are mindful in the ways we are connecting with families and making sure that it's meeting their needs and where they are at? It is also about um workshops and um resources for parents. So what was also shared out was some of the things that were um provided for the parents at the workshops. How do we have conversations around the topics that are um impacting our students? How are we aware of what's going on and what are the needs of the parents so we are able to provide resources for them to be able to support their students at home but also ways for them to engage with the school. So in ways that meet them where they are. So we might not

148get the attendees at the events but what are the little ways that you are ensuring that you're connected to your school. Um knowing who your teacher your students teachers are and building that relationship with them and then continuing the community aspect of that. So continuing the partnerships with the people we have been able to establish over the years as well as identifying new community partners to the work. I believe that's my part. But thank you all and I'm going to turn it over to Amanda who will talk a little about our multilingual family engagement. Hello. Good evening. Um I am Amanda Gooler the family um liaison with the office of equity advancement and I'm excited to share how we have been deepening our engagement with multilingual families um across the district. Um we know that

149families and um caregivers are our students u first teachers and when language is a barrier um access becomes unequal. So my role is to ensure um that every family no matter what language they um speak can understand, participate and feel part of our school community. Um I'm only bilingual. I wish I could speak all 75 language that we have in the district. Um I don't yet. Um but I have been trying to develop in my the best of my abilities ways to connect with families that I also don't speak their language. Um thankfully to the AI technology and many other tools that we have today. Um I'm happy to say that it's possible creating that welcoming creating that um first connection and the trust can happen even if we don't speak necessarily the same language.

150Um so I would like to share some demographics so we can all have a better understanding of how diverse um Westart for public schools is. We have um over 2800 families that speak a language other than than English at home. Um our top five language now are Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Nepali, and Vietnamese. And um it doesn't necessarily means that all of those families do not also speak English or um they are all ESO students, but it's just a reflection on um all of the families that do have a second language at home. Um so that number also show um why we have expanded our efforts to reach support and connected with ever multilingual families. Um and it's important to know this. So we can also honor um those families not only not only by providing

151language access but also um acknowledging their cultural differences um different different uh celebrations and holidays or um just like to knowing their stories or things that might be simple or um just like happens on dayto-day to us but may not be as um easy for them. So really understanding the differences so we can navigate it together makes a huge difference. Um the work that we do like Shaina and Teresa said um is all about connection. Um and when I am working with multilingual families, it really is meeting families where they are. Um and it can be a lot of different situations. um and understanding what exactly they need as a support instead of just jumping into conclusions and looking for um communication or um assuming that they need things that we don't yet know. So

152creating that connection and really understanding where they are at when they come to us is a great first step. Um and that that connection for families means having support with registration, understanding the district forms, um understanding power school. Um a lot of families have benefit a lot from um learning more about early childhood opportunities. Um navigating summer programs. So um a lot of families don't know when to register. How does that happen? Is it through the school? Is it through leisure services? Where do I go to? Um and it also means to them real time translation tools and culturally responsive workshops that reflects on famil family's um lived experiences and needs. Um for students, it is about straining the bridge between um home and school. So when families feel informed and included, students show up

153and they show up emotionally, socially and academically. So trying to take away some of the pressure that some of our very young students carry uh by being the personal interpreter for a parent or solving grown-ups problems. Um, of course we cannot take that responsibility and and do the work for them, but really educating families and helping them understand the system um guiding them to find the right resource and building the right connections um releases a lot of those pressures from our students. And um we will we will see a little bit further on. But as proof of that, I had the other day a fourth grader student when we were visiting schools that came to me and just said, "Thank you for helping my family and things are so much easier now." And then he

154proceeded to share how he was able to join the soccer team. um and is doing a lot of things that he used to see his peers doing but his parents didn't know how to get there. Um and that that's a big and and like huge sign of how this work matter and what how it makes a difference. Um we also support staff by offering um coaching practical tools and ongoing collaboration so schools can feel occupied and to engage with multilingual families with confidence and respect. Um not really taking the shortcut and reaching out for um a translator necessarily but using the tools that we have in place. um choosing how am I sending the communication home if it's through an email that's easily translatable to many language um sending the newsletters through s'mores that can

155also be translatable and again going back to um the the part where we can help families to understand the system. So if I go to the website how can I translate the website how can I find that information? Um we have been using um an app that sends message to families. U a teacher or a staff member can type in the message in English. The parent will receive the message in their uh chosen language and then they can do the same type in the message in their language and the the staff or the teacher will receive uh that message back in English. Um I have heard great feedback from um schools and the communication has improved a lot by the use of that app the the this app. Um we also continue to grow our

156community partnership. Uh we had this year a few car seat sessions with the police department um which was amazing. This was the third year that we have been doing that in collaboration with the police department. But what I enjoyed mostly this year was to um see families coming back and now knowing why it is important to use a car seat. Um when two years ago they were like a three year oh we don't need a car seat in my home country. So really creating the the um identifying the differences and explaining uh why it's important and why we are offering and how we can partner so everybody can be safe. Um we do want our kids to come to school um safely. So having the car seat is important but really having the feedback from

157families that they understood why it was important and how they have been using the car seat now is um also another great accomplishment. Um also um connecting families with the adult education that we have um either through the um ESOL program for parents encouraging them to attend classes and um learn the language uh trying to take away the the barrier of feeling like but if I don't speak any English I'm going to get there how am I going to communicate and creating a community you are not alone there are more people there uh you may not speak the same language but everybody will be willing to learn together and I have heard from families that end up creating friendships and now they are doing potlucks and learning about each other's um culture which is also

158amazing because um kids in school are experiencing the same thing um and I think we can go to the next one So the power of um connections um what matter most is um what families say and what they share um not only their feedback but also um their enthusiasm or um their ideas and um their culture values as well. So how can we implement and how can we make it work um both ways in instead of saying this is how it works here you have to follow the protocol you need to be um ready and do what you are being told um and just really explaining why and and and the reason behind of it and what are the benefits of doing so and also exchanging um um the information and trying to learn something

159new from from them as well. Um those quotes that you see here reflect something real. Um when people feel understood, when they engage, they show up consistently and um they are there ready to to partner with us and and those are the kind of relationship that it's not in the moment but they will be longinglasting. Um I would like to mention that I was able to work a lot of this year with um the quest department and um we had some pretty positive interactions um where multilingual families was able to come and see the art show um or have parent and teacher conferences um individually with the Quest teacher so they could learn more about what exactly that um how their child was identified and it it was such a great um experience to um

160expand the this amazing program also for uh multilingual learners. Um we also work in partnership a lot with the ESOL um department. So we are trying to um remember that not we also have families that a student may not be qualified for a soul but the parents still do not speak English and therefore that family may still need some support or guidance. So how can we um provide the same level of um guidance and support for families if the student is not in ESOL um and we were able to do such a great job this year on connecting with those families as well. um early childhood education. Um we had a session to support families um understanding the lottery process and then applying for the lottery and also um after the lottery how do you

161register and again it was a great opportunity because they are just entering the system. So um learning that we do offer um the lottery program and how do you apply and then also learning how to register and move on and then then attend the prek um visitation. Families have shared great feedback and then they are so happy for the opportunity and to to have clear directions on how that works. Um, I think we can go. And then looking ahead, um, I I would love to continue to work on developing a district-wide plan to ensure that every family receives the clear and meaningful communication um, in a way that they can trust and in their language. So, um, like I said before, luckily we do have um, amazing technology and tools nowadays. um that we can

162use to either translate forms um event invitation or thinking about platforms that we can use QR codes and families can through their phone see uh the the the the details and information. um being mindful of when we create Google forms. How can I um included more language when families do select which is new newer to to us in power school now parents have an option of selecting what language they would like to receive communication from school. Um and if for for example they select that they wanted to uh receive communication in Spanish then when we do have the central call or um whenever Mr. Vicinus sends an email that it's translatable to the language that uh of their choice. Um, so we are also reaching out to families that have been in the district for

163a while and didn't have that option when they first register. So we can go back and update that selection and power school. So moving on, they would be able to receive that communication and their language um the language of their preferences. Um for when it comes to creating connections and between the schools um and families um really guiding the staff and um sharing some of the technology and some of um the tools that we are utilizing so they can implement and also use in their classroom on a daily basis. That also goes for like school secretaries um that needs to communicate with families on a daily basis about attendance or um just being late or a nurse phone call. So how can we make that easy that communication easy? Um and we are inviting families

164to info the process not just by asking for feedback but co-creating events and experiences together. Um it's amazing that multifamily multifamilies are uh participating and engaging more on school events and parents and teachers conferences. uh but we also wanted to know from them uh what can we do in order to have them participate more. So for example when we are offering a workshop um or when there there is a meeting it and it's their their interest what can we do in order to offer language access for families that do not speak English to be in that um environment. So that's something that we are working on too and hopefully for the next um school year we will have a good solution and a plan in place. Um and we are all keeping our students success

165at the center of everything. Um and when families do feel included then students will thrive um for sure. And um I'm I'm seeing this this row as not just outreach but um integration not support from the side but partnership at the core. Um so I think that's pretty much it. Um yeah, and so much of I know that um you know Amanda just caveat to that um was centralized in two schools. Um but as you can see from um early in her presentation um the sheer numbers of families that we have that speak a language other than English at home. It it was really important for us to to centralize um the role and ensure that we're you know that we're building um also parent agency with their with their own ability. So we're we're

166kind of grouping people together to do the work so that we have a workshop on how to access P school. So it's not me sitting with with just you and having that conversation, but okay, there's five or six. Great. Come, let's all sit and we'll put on a big screen and we'll we'll go through that process and learn that together. Um because again our our job is to provide access for families and for them to actually feel confident um in their learning so that they can actually approach um you know um building their own their own um acquisition of language. Right. And I and I love the partnership with the adult education also under my umbrella um as a tool to help people feel confident. And we were just at that um celebration and and

167graduation um ceremony um a couple weeks ago and it was just it's phenomenal to watch people learn. Um so I am going to present for Amy because she's not here. Um but talking a little bit about open choice um program engagement um and some of the points of connections. Um luckily I've gotten a chance to do a lot of this with her so I I can speak to it um with no problem. Um so we did a lot of home um high school visits with students and we got to sit with them along with our correct partners and have discussions about how their experience how students who are who are attending West Hartford public schools through the open choice program. There are students but you know obviously they live um in Hartford um how that

168experience is going for them. And we we talked with high school students, we talked with middle school students. Um we um you know there were so many things that they that they surfaced as you know some of the students they're like barely even notice not a problem blah blah blah right and other students had some really um had really hit some barriers and and and had to kind of navigate around some things. And so it was great to be able to kind of talk to them and hear directly from students. Um for parents, there have been in-person virtual meetings for families. Um meetings both in West Hartford and also meetings in Hartford to make um things um easy easier. We've done some um events. We partnered with Trinity College for the Samba Fest. If you

169didn't go, you missed an amazing festival. It was amazing. Music was absolutely amazing. Um and she of course does year-round outreach to um to our families. Um, a lot of uh the work that um Amy does with families is around um partnering with um with CRE and and our schools and connecting resources or opportunities that are available um because you know in in some ways it's like a superpower. They get to they get to come here partake in anything that we offer here. But but um Craig also does a really phenomenal job of offering lots of opportunities as well. And so we don't want them to miss out. It's like you can have you can literally have it all. and we want to make sure that students are aware of everything that they do have

170access to. Um, and we, you know, we continue to work on creating opportunities for for community partnership and and for um we we established a really great partnership with the Boys and Girls Club um in Hartford and that has paid off in dividends down the road when we needed it to pay off in dividends um for looking for um space for um for our students to be and um we continue to to look for new and and and great ways for us to partner. Um, so for the work with Amy, um, what I decided to do is I pulled some of the survey data that she had and I and I wanted you to have, um, an inkling into the power of listening. Um, and this is what middle school students had to say, um,

171about um, their experience, middle school students who are participating um, through open choice in particular. Um, what do they like the most? Um, you know, I won't read everything for you, but you know, do you have at least one trusted adult at your school? what makes them trustworthy? Um what's the most challenging part of being at school? Uh and if you can change one thing about your school, right, were some of the questions. Um you know, the through line that I found um with student responses is it really kind of all still bound boiled down to connections. Like that's that was that is what made the biggest difference for students. Um and I I especially loved um the conversation with students around what makes them trustworthy. uh what makes a a teacher trustworthy, what makes

172an adult a trustworthy person. Um and it kind of goes back to the work that we're doing with our restorative practices where we actually have like a whole couple units on trust, which I know it seems like a weird thing to say that you're you're going to talk about when you think about restorative practice, but the reality is restorative practice is based mostly on relationships. So, you have to establish trust. And um you know, it's not something that I think is intuitive for people. like trust is can be as simple as if I say we're going to do this I we actually do it um as as well as you know as the students so eloquently pointed out they don't gossip about me right if I tell you something you know you I told you

173because I trust you and I have a relationship with you I don't want to go to my seventh period class and hear it from the teacher in my seventh period class that they know you know something that I shared with you and so um you know I'm I'm continually um reminded right that that although our students are young. They are um they're very intuitive. You know, they they know they know when you're a trusted adult. They know when um when you've shown sign that you can't be trusted. Um they want the same things that all adults want, right? What's challenging? Turning your grades and putting your things in on time, trying to make friends because not everybody wants to be your friend, right? I think that's that's not uniquely um something for for students. That's

174also for adults, right? Trying to navigate social situations. Um and uh of course if they wanted to change one thing about their school um you know they had a lot to say about that. I like I took a few of the commentary but they um they were definitely very open and willing to share and and Amy and I really enjoyed having the conversation along with our our correct partner for middle schools who also joined us in those conversations. Um and so one of the things that we look at we're looking for for next um steps um is student voice circles um just really allowing students to have an opportunity to come and talk um we understand you know as much as we are they we are committed to them to students who are participating open

175choice being west Hartford students they are um it is different right you you are you are here during the day you go home to a different community um in the evening and that that that is a difference and it's a difference that we have to honor and it's the difference that we have to support um and know how to better support and so really listening and taking the time to listen. Um and another thing that was really a student um suggestion is they really wanted to have like some studentled um you know initiatives where they can actually be their ambassadors to talk about um belonging and kindness and and how do we make sure that everyone can find a friend. Um and so that was some work that they would they were looking to do

176um as that part of the group. And so in your packet I I detail like a whole bunch of things, but I'll I'll give a brief synopsis of some of our future forward work like what's next for us. Um we continue to to want to center student voices. We continue to want to find opportunities to ensure that um that we're not just um taking information from students, but that we take that information and then we do something with that information. Um because that is how you establish trust, right? That I'm going to ask you, hey, what do you think about this? Or what's going on with this? and then you tell me and I listen and then I let I allow what you tell me to inform my decisions moving forward. And so we're we're

177really um leaning into that work. And as I mentioned in our last meeting, we are kind of dividing ourselves up uh to support schools and we'll each have a portfolio of schools that we will support more closely um to help support them in their own equity problems of practice um as well as um you know facilitating some of those listening circles and some of those listening circles for both um students, families and um our staff as well. Uh again really trying to to deepen that work um and in as many ways as possible. we continue on our restorative journey. Um, and it is a journey. Uh, right. It's like a place we'd like to go and and we recognize that there are barriers and there are structures even sometimes in place that kind of um,

178you know, make getting where we want to go. Um, uh, just not it's like it's it's like almost like you see it in front of you and it looks like it's from here to there and then you recognize that in between here and there there's all these things, right? whether it's like a pit or a you know a hill or whatever. There's all these things um that that make that destination um not as simple as I think people would like to see it be. um you know we are we are faced with um you know youth who who have access to yeah anything as you know our parents were very eloquently saying today right there's there anything and everything that's that is you know at the palm of their hands and um I I need

179you to know and and I need the community to know that that that deeply impacts what happens in our schools right this I mean I need to go no further than this tic-tac challenge with the the Chromebooks to tell you that like you know um the power of suggestion, right, of and and of um fitting in um continues to like play plagues on us. This idea about jokes and what's funny and what's not funny um has really kind of um it's the thing that we have to we have to battle and we have to give kids a different thing to to kind of hold on to and connection really is it. Um, and I would echo uh what's already been said about we have to kind of be willing to model what we'd like to

180see happen. I was an elementary school principal. I cannot tell you how many first graders had phones. I don't even have the words but like you know um there there is a partnership that's involved with this you know um some of some of the um monitoring for for what's happening um can can be a little less um necessary if we hold the line. I think if we're going to use research and resources that are out there that talk about um our you know cell phone usage and screen time then we have to kind of look at all of it because another piece of it that came up was that is the when you should give your child a cell phone right that was another big part of of that that text uh in that research.

181And so we have to hold each other in partnership when it comes to that that you know there there are there are ages right that are more appropriate. Um which kind of leaves for us as a school system a little bit less to battle with. And to be honest with you like I said I have grandchildren like my three-year-old he's you know he sees a phone his eyes light up and I'm like yeah no sorry buddy. Um or a tablet right? And it's you know we have to make decisions as a community on how we're going to handle this. Um and but but again I need to be really clear that many of the things that kind of pop up and we have students who are kind of getting themselves into trouble are you know

182are directly connected to um things that they're seeing hearing um you know this idea about being able to joke about something that isn't funny. um you know, and we're we're looking to kind of find ways to to um proactively have those conversations with student on a tier one level so that we're not waiting until you've done the wrong thing, but we'll just at least have some ability to talk to you beforehand. Um so that hopefully we don't get to making those kinds of mistakes. But if you do, we want to restore you. We want you back into the fold. Uh but you need to have some learning and and some um some ability to understand the consequences and what you've done and how what you've done how now impacts somebody else as well. But I

183could do this all night and I'm sure they'll kill me if I keep going. So if we are going to stop and open up for questions. All right. Thank you very much. A wealth of information. Thank you teammates. questions, comments regarding the report we received. Thank you again so much. Oh, yes, Latoya. Thank for um thank y'all for the for the report. Um your work is really important and just so happy that we have this in our town, in our schools. Um, I wanted to just like throw a couple of like I think I'm a like s super solutionsoriented and thinking about how we can address certain things. Um, and when you were talking earlier about having that conversation with BSU, that conversation is a conversation that happens in my household on like a weekly

184basis. Like my child is very vocal and has a lot of perspectives about that, but we talk about it. Um, and one of the things I've been thinking a lot about is um, throughout the state, like I do the restorative justice work and I most of my conferencing, so in restorative justice conferencing for those who don't know, is when you're actually having a circle because a harm happened. Um, and so most of the conferencing that I've been doing this year all over the state has been around racial slurs. Um, and it's been uh from both sides. It's been white students like hard aing and like saying it in a ve like to cause racialized harm. Black and brown students trying to use it casually but ignorantly, not understanding the deeper historical context. Um and and

185it's interesting having those conversations. Um, one of the things that I have seen be powerful about this and this is a just a suggestion and not just for you because I know your work is like bigger picture but like school leaders cuz I know they have a lot of autonomy you know around their school culture and climate doing those conferences and like having the students talk about what they were thinking at the time when they said the word who's been impacted and in those conferencing circles you have support people for those students who they've identified and also impacted parties in the community. So even with the black and brown students, some of their black and brown friends would be in the conference with them talking about how they were impacted by their friends use of

186the word. And the last part of the conference, which is to me the most profound, is the what has to happen and make it right. And that question goes to the people that were impacted. And so the reason I like that process and I think it could support our district a lot um with using that try trying to use that more regularly with these situations is it's to me even more accountability because while we have you know if we give our blanket consequence whatever you know it still might not meet the need of the harm that was caused. And so when the person harmed says, "These are some of the things that I need." And of course, if they say something unrealistic, you you're honest with them and say, "Well, that can't happen. What else

187do you need?" But some of the things that have come out of it, and I'll tell you, white students who have said it, you know, some of those students have committed to taking black and Latin studies as a class. Um, they've committed to being allies. They've uh made TikTok videos about not using that language. And so those are some of the things. And same thing with the black and brown students. they've committed to leading community conversations and going um in into their advisory and having that so their re-entry point so say if they were suspended and they had to re-enter back into the community their reentry in part of is part of repairing that harm is having that conversation or being an agent of change. Um and so I'm just that's like my plug to

188like think about how we can move the needle on that a little bit. I have a little bit of I have a worry about the blanket consequence with that word because we do need to have a larger conversation about it. Um, and I worry I just worry that kids, black and brown kids using this word who don't understand the pain and the historical context because they weren't taught it. um that if their only if the only response to it is excluding them from the community when they're using the word they're hurting themselves and they don't know it but they're hurting themselves. The word was created to isolate them. They use it, they isolate themselves further and then they get removed from the community. That's their only consequence. It's almost like the consequence is the harm.

189it it's it's a cycle and I want us to help break that cycle here so that they're it's just like a deeper like they actually have to really commit to repairing the harm and maybe part of that is the tier one and another thing it makes me think about is we have all these I know our schools have these builtin like parent nights and stuff for all kinds of things and one thing about West Hartford parents at least from what I've seen is they turn out they turn out right and so how can we use these already curated moments to have these conversations and engage them. And another thing I've seen in the conferencing is like part of the harm repair is the parents too. Like they they're involved with some of that harm repair

190too, right? And I think that is critical. So, um I know that there's been a lot of work put in place already, you know, to build these practices in. And I'm just throwing that out there because I I see it as like a pattern not just here in our district, but like all over the state. And I'm like, we got to this this is a teachable thing like you said at the tier one level. So, I just wanted to um throw that out there. But thank y'all for the work you're doing, the conversations that you're having. Um one community, I I want to come and check out uh one of those meetings because it sounds really powerful. Um and I'm really um excited to see how you've been able to continue and expand your role

191this year. Um and so I think it's it's obviously been a great investment. So, thank you all. I just wanted to make sure I put on record. Um, so it isn't just a consequence, right? There's a consequence and a learning opportunity there because I 100% agree with you. Like, you know, just getting a consequence isn't um, you know, the removing a child from a space, right, is is one thing, but if they we've removed them from the space and there's no learning happening um, and no ability to kind of have that conversation and and and process that, um, that that is a harm, right? And so we are we are we we we do that as a general practice. We are actually looking um and partnering to to do it in a more um systemic

192way so that we can we know that everybody's kind of had like the same um learning opportunity and then you process it with a with a person who's who's had some training. Um but it is important to us and and ultimately again I look at it this way like we have to become a community that where we where we discourage um each other from from creating harm, right? And so like that just that but that definitely comes with relationships and I think that we're you know we're doing the work. The problem is of course um things are things continue to move as we're doing the work. So it's like it's not like we can stop stop we're going to stop do the work and then things will get better. Like we're like flying the plane

193while building the plane while um remodeling the plane you know and that's just because the world keeps changing and and um again we we just have so many outside influences that also play a role in in in how we engage with our our students. But we are committed. So, thank you. I'm sorry. I just have one more thing. I appreciate that. Um, I just want to make sure I share the thoughts that I have before they leave me. One other thing, um, thinking about that, um, in particular that I found to be helpful, too, was calling on powerful black leaders in the community to come in and have some of those conversations that the kids respect. So, I told you I wasn't giving any like Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. cuz I know like when I

194had certain things happen in my school and I bring powerful black leaders that I knew the kids respected or had that I mean like we got a black police chief and that's pretty awesome and like things like that and it's something about having them conversations with them um that can shift gears. Um so yeah, that's it. I'll stop. Thank you, Claire. Yeah. Um congratulations on the new role, Amanda. Um I noticed um you had stated on page eight that there's um outcomes of the work are evident already. There's a noticeable increase in multilingual family participation, stronger enrollment uh in early childhood and improved access. I'm wondering if um maybe a baseline being a new position that you could take a baseline. um numbers do help um and and with um you know this change already

195evident it would be great I don't know if there was data prior to you taking the position or at least this could be your baseline now and that in years to come we can see the growth. Thank you Gail. Yeah. Um thank you for the presentation. I was wondering, Amanda, can you um clarify? I think you said that there were about 2800 um families that spoke a second language in the home. Do you know, and I you may not, but do you know how many students that represents? Um, and if you don't, it's fine. I do know that we have um close to 450 um Portuguese speaking families um right now. Um I I don't know if those are exactly 450 students, but we do 4 We do have 450 students. Um that is students.

196Yep. You said 2800. I thought you said 2,800 families, but maybe you said it does say families. Oh yeah, 2,800 families. Could be students. I actually think it's students. Um we the um it pulled the data for us in his how he um framed the the like the graph that he sent us. It says it does say students. Oh, okay. Yeah, that's Thank you. And just just to clarify too um this is technically new because we didn't have the option in power school before where families could selected what language they wanted to receive the communication. Um so we tried to work with the department and with it in order to have a um better understanding of the numbers. Um I'm pretty sure that soon enough we will know for sure like the the percentage of

197students um and families because we do have um a large number of students that were born in the US but the parents do not speak English or they speak more than one language at home as well. I'm just curious is is your department involved in any immigration um issues that are arising or is that just administration? Go ahead first. Um so um what I would say is is as as always um you know if families have concerns or questions they reach out um they reach out to trusted um you know um individuals um within our school systems for sure and obviously within the wider community. um our you know our involvement with immigration really centers around um you know if a sam a family has identified that they need a help or support um that

198we you know we can provide or if there's like forms that were shared with the state that we can um could if they needed help filling them out or or things like that. We've we've obviously opened ourselves for that as we would for any um you know situation or or circumstance where people are looking for uh information or or need access right to to things. But um I don't know if you wanted to expound further. No, I I think I think that kind of covers it. Like our role obviously um you know education is is a guaranteed um service that we provide to any student regardless of immigration status as as outlined in law. So in in terms of our direct mission there there isn't a big piece but as as Theres is kind of

199saying where there where there are families who have questions concerns you know we have a role and and in addition to our equity office I think also I would point to you know the social workers in the schools if they receive a question like that from a family uh or if that question bubbles up through a principal we're able to kind of direct them to support services um that might exist outside of the schools. So, we're sometimes a pass through for information to help support them. And one of the things that we're trying to do is kind of promote um to the best of our ability the the the safety of our of our space and our institution um and the importance of, you know, regular attendance at school. And so, yeah, I'm just curious.

200I' I've heard um that there's um some families are keeping a lower profile, not reaching out as much. Some kids are not going to school. Um you know that it's a concern. I just and I agree with you. It's the trusted adult that you need if you need the help, but sometimes people are afraid. Um what I will say is I I think you know for all the districts that I've been in um I think West Hartford has um is gifted with with um the staff that you have here particularly um I'm going to give a shout out to your ESOL um teachers and and staff that you know are you know so when we say trusted adults uh and trusted people in spaces um we kind of when you're looking um from that lens

201I think you have to reframe who who that is for people uh who find themselves in different situations Um and um you know if if if you were already unaw if you were unaware that a person was in a circumstance like that um then I tell people I said with all due respect don't take it personal but then you're not that person and that's okay right as long as that we as long as we have people that you can reach out to and our administrators are all people that you can reach out to and say hey listen um I'm in a situation I need some support um but also there's you know there's a you know a great um understanding of of where you can find resources and and we we like you know um

202support families in any way that we possibly can. Um, but also I think there's uh it's really important that we not um some sometimes people in their efforts to try to to help and support things can actually create harm. And so it's really important that we respect people's privacy which is why again as school systems we don't ask we don't care um about u status you know legal status in the country. Our job you know is to educate all students. Um and so we don't keep that information. We don't ask for that information. We don't like store that information anywhere. Um but um but any family who has a need um and in any need um should feel that they can come to their school and and have a conversation with their administrator and get

203the support that they need. Other questions or comments? Ethan, two things unrelated. Um, one is, uh, one of the best books I've ever read and more adult type, but it still is Speed of Trust. I got it for each of my kids, so four of them. So, and other than my wife, they all enjoyed it. She threw it away. U, but no, I think if you I have extra copies at home if you're interested. So, I'm always interested in a bookie. Okay. Um, second thing, I'll put the pitch in for car seats. I think I mentioned last year that my um daughter-in-law and one of my grandchildren were in a car that got totally totaled and rolled over and granddaughter came out fine. My daughter-in-law unfortunately had to have two operations on her hands but

204also came out fine. So the what you guys do with car seats is great and because of that I went to the uh police station had them help me put in the car seats when my daughter came back. So I appreciate it. So it's worth it. Thank you. All right. Well, thank you so very much. Again, wonderful information. I just want to make one quick point. I appreciate the cross reference, the cross connection of the work that you're doing that yes, we know we are here to serve the students, but we cannot work with the students alone and recognizing you involve the staff, the students, the families, and the community at large will only improve and and promote sustainability of the work that's being done. So, thank all three of you so very much. Thank

205you. Thank you. All right. And as we make our trans Oh, I wanted to offer the opportunity for our students. Yes. Yes. Indeed. As we make the transition, as we've said before, we'll say once again, you all are students first and foremost. So, if you choose to depart at this time, no judgment whatsoever. You are students first and foremost. Thank you. All right. And as we make a transition, I'm going to ask for a twominut um bio break, please, if I may. Yes. Thank you. Absolutely. Absolutely. A motion for a two a threem minute break. Is there a motion for three minute break? Is there a second? All right. Thank you. just to pause for a few minutes. Thank you. All right. Thank you so very much. We are going to get started. Thank you

206for your patience. All right. So, yes, here we are. And now we're going to receive the district profile performance and report. So, passing it to Superintendent Venus to make the introductions, please. U very excited to to have the whole executive team up in front of you. And this is I'll just I'll just point out this is the 2023 2024 performance and profile report. So it's so it's um really reflective of data that goes back uh to that school year. Um this is a report that the state department of education requires us to present to you. But in all reality, we present much of the information included within this report in greater detail throughout the year. So I'll ask the team to really just for your purposes hit some highlights and provide the opportunity for any

207questions that you might have. uh because a lot of this information has has been previously shared. Well, good evening everyone. Uh we are pleased to present the profile and performance or PPR report. The PPR is Connecticut's report card for every district and school. It is put together for every district and school. It provides a summary of several metrics which provide a holistic view of our district. Um as Paul was saying, the the data is released throughout the year. So by the end of the year we give you the entire report. However, you have seen much of it in different pieces, especially in the fall. Um this overall is a very good news report. So we're very proud to be here tonight. Uh I'll start with the purpose of state accountability. We'll look at the indicators

208that the state provides data on um in we'll look at our performance in a few categories. student educator data, school climate and safety, instruction resources and people's services and performance and accountability. And we'll leave time for questions. Um so the state accountability system is to identify and promote um improved educational practices to make very public to all stakeholders the condition of education at this school and district level because there's a report for every school as well as the district. um to acknowledge our successes and to identify areas of improvement. Um it's to establish the support for all stakeholders in making the changes needed to enable uh our students to achieve at their highest. And of course, it's going to help inform our uh policy decisions. The in there are many indicators in the report. In

209fact, it's a very interesting report to read. It has all different types of indicators, but we'll start with there are student uh data indicators on demographics, absenteeism, and discipline. We have some HR related um data on staffing levels, student uh staff demographics and their attendance. We also look at instructional resources that fall heavily in pupil services with students who are with their non-disabled peers. different kinds of categories we have that u identify where our our students primary disability what we're what we have for outplacement students in outplacement and our expenditures and then in the column that falls mostly within the curriculum office how we're doing on all of our indicators of performance including academic performance graduation rates college credit readiness the percentage of kids who are entering college and staying there how the the degree

210to which our students are taking the arts um our achievement gap and participation indicators. Another similar indicator that actually is from the pupil services department and our physical fitness data. So with that, I'd like to get us started. And what we're going to start with is our students and educators. And some of the highlights we see are that our student diversity has increased a little bit more uh to uh up um one almost one more percentage point with students of um color. Our teachers of color have also increased uh just a tad. Um we are seeing an increase in uh free and reduced uh lunch participation um up almost two points that year. Um really good news around chronic absenteeism. We continue to see it coming down much faster than the state rate. And the

211chronic absenteeism for black and Hispanic students which is also reported was coming down even faster. So, we're really getting um we're really doing um seeing some really nice um really nice improvement in that area. Yeah. Yes. [Music] So, as you know, one of our clear goals is to attract, retain, and develop highquality staff. And when we're doing that, we certainly are also always focused on trying to take a look at our student demographics and really looking at a staff that more closely mirrors that of our students. Um, you can see that we did have an increase of.3% which you know on the surface when you look at it and you think, uh, that's not really a big gain, right? We always like to jump back and say that that's actually 25 more teachers. Like that's

212what that translates into. So, you know, we recognize we still have work to do, but I do want to just say that we are proud that we continue to see an upward trend in that number. And I think too, and and Teresa and I, if you recall, did a a pretty extensive presentation on our plan to try to increase that number and to make that even larger as uh the presentation for next year. You know, two things I'll just highlight is our future educators of diversity and I know that our student speakers did highlight that we had over 40 students again that are in that program and 12 seniors and so for us that's really exciting. Um I had the privilege of doing a quick speech during that um presentation for the students the pinning

213ceremony and one of the things that you know I promised all of them was that we would guarantee them an interview in this district regardless of the position that they do. So many of them, you know, and hoping, fingers crossed, they'll go out to be teachers, but we also talked about that we have a lot of different jobs in our district. Um, you know, we've got an IT, we've got in the business office and all those other things. So, um, one of the things I like to just plug for them is to tell them that, hey, when you finish off in a couple years, call me, email me, um, and we'll make sure that we bring you in. Um, and it was really powerful. the the I'll call it the keynote speaker was one of

214my former students when I was principal who was a a star in our FODD program and is now over at Cedric. And so, you know, I think to see that program going through because I remember when we started it many years ago like thinking like, man, how long is this going to take to pay off, right? And you start doing the numbers on it. And so now that we're sitting there, you're starting to see those students come back. and we have multiple students um that are not just here, right? Out in in other districts and and out there in the world. And so we're really excited about that. And the other piece too, and again, I've I've spoken at the table multiple times about our um TRP program, our teacher residency program. So I sit

215here today, I'm thrilled to say that both of our TRP candidates um are very, very close, right, Teresa, to uh finishing the program. Um and we have found a spot for each of them. And so they both will have special education teaching positions next year. Um so again that's that's heartwarming for me and um and really exciting and we have two more people that we've accepted into the program. And so um I had to have Teresa come and participate in interviews with me because honestly it was too hard. I guess I was cowardly to uh listen to all these stories and have to narrow it down to two. But we had a lot of applicants from our own district that wanted to join the program. And you know what I did was it was really

216just heartwarming. Um, and I went and had a nice conversation with Paul and appreciated him taking the time to just sort of listen to me process it all because it was really more about listening to their stories. Um, you know, and even for me sometimes like forgetting the stories that our folks come with, right? And and honestly and Teresa, I would agree is many of them that we listen to had credentials that were actually on paper like far above mine, right? but they left their country to come here and provide a better um living for their own families and now just don't have a piece of paper. Um but truthfully, you know, they were teachers in their countries. They've taught courses. We had an engineer that both Dre and I were like, "Wow." Um you

217know, and so to be able to welcome them not only into our district, into the roles, but to listen to the the pride that they have, right? They're currently in parah and TA roles and they're just they're proud. They're genuinely proud of the difference they're making in our students lives and talking about how they can see students sort of shine when they talk to them because they see themselves in them. And so, like I said, we are thrilled to be able to have two more in that pipeline. And it's it's something that I truly appreciate the support of the board and Paul because there is a cost to that program, but I think overall the um return on that investment is is amazing. um and now to see the word getting out and and do

218appreciate Teresa's partnership too in that and really taking a mentorship role too to meeting with the candidates that are out in the schools um and going through that. So, you know, I guess in closing, I I certainly recognize and when you look at the numbers that we have a lot of work to do to have our uh teaching demographic really mirror that of our students, but I also know that this district is committed to getting there. And I think the steps we're taking are not only innovative, but we're also really putting uh, you know, our back behind the different pieces. Um, and then supporting folks in those endeavors as well. So, [Music] so overall, our data indicates that the overwhelming majority of our students conduct themselves appropriately, contribute to a safe and orderly environment in

219all of our schools. While well under the state average of 7%, our district suspension rates increased slightly for this past year from 3.2 to 3.9%. And within this category, we continue to see the trend of disproportionality between suspension rates of subgroups. We remain committed to closing these gaps. As you've heard through our climate committees, our continued antibbias education to support the development of each of our students and our larger community. Our schools continue to implement restorative practices in combination with the consequences to ensure that students feel connected to the school community and are developing resources to educate our students proactively on making the good choices that we expect them of uh as our graduates. And when we look at trends and data, do you want to hit the next one? It's important to remember that

220each of our incidents involves a decision made by a young person and each incident is an opportunity to help and teach that student how to make better decisions in the future. This is what our staff do every day. This is what we will continue to to do. And significantly, our internal data shows our reduction in repeat offenses, which indicates that our work in educating students after incidents have occurred are effective. But tier one approaches, particularly for our high school age students, continue to be needed. For 23 24, we saw an increase in physical and verbal confrontations, sexually related behaviors, property damage, and drug and alcohol tobacco violations, specifically vapes, which continue to be an issue at our middle schools and our high schools and frankly in our community. You know, it's it's when we talk

221about what's the difference between yeartoear, oftentimes we don't schools are not uh islands amongst themselves. They reflect our community. And I think uh what happens in our community, we see the the behaviors that are being driven by social media across the grade levels. We see the behaviors that are being driven by online behavior. Uh we've also seen a significant increase in negative and disruptive behaviors in some of our lower grades these past couple of years, specifically fourth and fifth grades as well as increases in the middle schools as well. And that's something we continue to address. As you know, in pupil services um and as I reported at the board table, we continue to see a steady increase in the number of students with disabilities in the district. When we do a five-year look back,

222we've increased 4.5% over the last five years, which equates to about 366 students. Um, similarly, year-to-year, we've seen an increase from last year to this year with an increase of 1%. So, we went from 16.8% students with disabilities, 17.8% this of the current reporting year. Um, the PPR does break down the categories of disability by the seven federal disability categories. And we continue to see that specific learning disabilities is our largest category um for students with disabilities and that does track with state and federal data. Um we did see a moderate increase there with um.5% increase. Other areas increase include autism and speech and language. Our other categories saw relative stabilization. Um we kind of see them in the same range across years and they're right in line with the state numbers. Um, one of

223the other areas that we monitor is disproportionality, and that's something that we look at annually by disability category for race and ethnicity. And there are no areas of disproportionality in the seven disability categories. We also monitor time with non-disabled peers. Really looks at how much time our students with disabilities are with their their non-disabled peers. And more than twothirds of our students are with non-disabled peers, 80% or more of their time in school. and that's a real celebration for their abilities to access our environments. Um some good news is that you know you have obviously heard our efforts to reduce out of district placements. So we did see a reduction in our out of district placements um from 13.4% to 13 I'm sorry from 13.8% last year to 12.8% this year and we're really closing

224in on state average which is 12.6%. So really proud of the work that we've done to engage our out of district partners and provide opportunities for students to be in our least restrictive environment. Oh, sorry. So we move ahead to um an area where we're really focused on college and career readiness. Um, and we have reported these numbers before, but we're seeing a very high percentage of our 11th graders engaged, meaning taking classes such as APCTE, workplace experience in dual credit courses. So, very high participation among our 11th grade and even higher among our 12th graders. So, the chances that you'll go through our high school and take an AP uh an ECE course or have workplace experience is exceedingly high. And the second category, achievement, refers to students who score at the benchmark for

225the SAT when they take school day SAT or another SAT during the year or if they have met um a three or four on uh ACT tests or a three, four or five on a P test. So any of those markers would say you're demonstrated college and career readiness. and we have 66% of our students demonstrating that by the time they graduate, which is our second highest performance. So, we continue to see excellent outcomes in uh giving students access to college level classes uh or workplace experience and and them succeeding in those courses. When we look on to the next slide, we're looking at the district performance index and this is an average. This was a way the state wanted to make it a little easier to understand all of the performance because when students

226are take a a test, they're often scored on a scale score of like something like between 2,000 and 3,000 points. And this is a way to kind of make it an index which is much more understandable. So in this uh this district performance average is the average performance of students in any subject area. The state goal target is 75. And so we see in the uh 2023 24 year our ELA index was 73.1 very close to the state goal of 75%. Or 75 sorry the math was 70.2 and the science 72 I'm sorry 70.2 and 72.3. I think what's most um impressive to me here is you know the the little differences are important. They eek up here. But what I think is most impressive is all the high needs categories. And that's been our

227focus on high needs kids heavily this last two years. How can we change? How can we adjust this achievement gap? How can we um move the barriers out of the way so all the students can easily move down the path. And so we were encouraged to see that all the high needs groups made incremental gains and the non- high needs um except there was a tiny dip in science. So we um we're pleased to see that more than anything. Um as we move forward, our high need students are moving forward in this case at a slightly higher rate which would in um indicate a a small closing of the achievement gap. Um this is a growth index and in this particular index you're looking at it's similar that an index is created but here you're

228not looking at just performance. Every student has um a every student in grade four, five, six, and seven and eight have a have a score from the year before, their own personal score from the year before. And then they have the score from their new year and they have a target set for how much growth they should make. So if you were a student who was performing in the lower bands, you'd have a higher target for growth. And if you're a student performing very very top, you'd have a much smaller target because harder to make growth at that very top mark. But all of this is averaged into an index. And it's a very complicate formula, but so I'll simplify it by saying the state is targeting 60. The number 60 would be a very

229good mark in this particular category. Um the reason is because the benchmark can go a child can actually attain as high as 110. Um if you were a child who exceeded the the score that you were uh targeted for, you actually can achieve higher. So the state is saying if uh 60 in this uh benchmark would be good. And you'll see here that the district um in ELA had a growth performance of 62 and a math growth performance of 67.3. a little little less growth in our high needs than we would like to see. Um but we are seeing growth year-over-year for that group as well. Um, our graduation rates continue to uh be very strong uh exceeding the state average uh by uh four points for our four percentage points for our four-year cohort

230and for our six-year uh cohort uh by six points. So, we are still um you know our graduation rates are very um impressive. Um, one of the metrics we were concerned with when the state uh increased graduation credits a few years ago was what we call the ontrack for graduation in grade nine. That is the percentage of uh students in ninth grade who are res uh earning um who are earning uh five credits. And so that had taken a dip for a little while and last year it came back very strong. We're very pleased with that. Um we also um report on I'm sorry didn't put on the screen our state uh uh testing uh for physical education participation um we had a very high rate of participation. We are looking at our the percentage

231of our students meeting all four benchmarks is a little bit lower than the state average at 37.8. So that's something we'll be looking at. Um and our arts access is 43% which is also a little bit lower than the state average. Um that was that was a tick up from last year. Um but those are those are categories that we work closely with those departments. But overall we are seeing um a little increase in arts. We will continue to work with the physical education department to understand better why we'd be uh slightly below the state average. Um the the highlights for the report are really the growth in the diversity of our student population. The chronic absenteeism is really I I think the principles and the counselors really deserve a lot of credit for making

232the phone calls. The IT department can be thanked too because they helped us to find new technologies that help us to send letters more regularly. Um, people had to change their attitudes a little about what they were saying during the pandemic versus what they're saying now. But they've all come together really well. The incremental change in the DPI is very good because we just see it across every area. Um, we starting to, you know, we have eliminated the achievement gap. Now when I say eliminate achievement gap, this is important to understand. This is um eliminate the achievement gap outlier. So when you have an achievement gap between um your high needs group and everyone else, that gap is an outlier if it is um if it is more than uh the state gap plus one

233standard deviation. And we don't have that in literacy, uh graduation rate or science. We do have an outlier in math uh last year. So we'll continue to look to eliminate when I say the achievement gap is eliminated that that wouldn't be accurate. It is the achievement gap outlier meaning are you outside of the normal district the normal standard deviation. And um the highlight of the really strong college entrance and persistence rates for all subgroups. Our kids when they go they stay. And that's really important because if you're going to go, it's really important to get a degree so that your money is well spent. So with that, I'd like to turn it over to discussion. All right. Thank you very much. Good information, good report. Thank you. Teammates, questions, comments regarding the report we have

234received. I have a question. Latoya question. It's for you, uh, Julio. So, um I heard today the governor was telling us about this like partnership or policy that the state passed around um acknowledging credentials. So, it is that does it not work internationally? So, you know, we're still looking at all the things that are coming down and really what a lot of it results in is having to get one-on-one reviews of transcripts. And uh, you know, sometimes what we'll find is that folks, particularly from other countries, will get their transcripts reviewed and don't understand like, hey, you've got to go to one of these people to get it done. And so, what we're trying to do is just continue with that kind of outreach for folks. and again partnering with Teresa and her um department

235to say, "Hey, if you have questions about this, feel free to reach out to my office or Teresa's office and we can show you the right way to go about it." But we're we're excited to see that they're listening. Um because I know that everyone um all of the HR departments across the state have been like shouting like, "Please help. Please help." Because again, we've got some really great people. Um, and it's just trying to figure out what are they really missing and then fill those gaps and not say, "Hey, you need to go get now an entire new master's degree." Ethan, the product absency rates, what was the base year? I said that there in that slide we we said we came we came down from the previous year. It was so 23 23

236to 24 23. Yes. Okay, Claire. Um, so the the 3% growth in in teachers of color, um, I I agree that if that's 25 teachers and in an average year we might hire 75 teachers, that ends up being a third of the new teachers coming on, which is a big step. And and it's all been positive. So everything we've done is is moving farther or closer to increasing um the kids. It means a lot to some kids to have someone that looks like them. And um so I think that makes a difference. The 1.7 increase in free and reduced lunch. I'm wondering if if you think I always wondered with COVID and the free lunches that families got used to um eating the the the food and so I wonder do you think poverty in

237our community increased by 1.7 or do you think just more people applied? No, I'm sorry. Yeah. No. Um, I think if you think about um, uh, inflation and where we are now and what it takes uh, the the the amount of income it now takes um, to to feed a family in particular if you want to feed a family with healthy things and not what's cheaper, which is you don't want to really be feeding your family. Um, I think that that's a a very honest number and a very honest distribution of of where we are as a as a community, but where we are as a country. Um, things are hard for people. And so I think that's actually that's that's just a a reality. I do believe now I know this is the state

238report from over a year ago. Are we seeing an increase in in applications for free and reduced lunch? We are in not just in applications but also in um direct right direct certified like so they're not necessarily you don't have to actually apply if you if you receive SNAP then you're automatically um assigned. Jason, I was wondering if you could just talk a little bit more about the state DPI target, which is is 75. And it's it's always concerning when we hear we're, you know, we're below the state target and really what that means. [Music] I don't with it. Um I I mean the DPI is the target of 75% of your students reaching the third like it indicates that students are solidly in the third the the students are scored one two three four

239on that on the ESPback right so a 75 would say that that the majority of your students are solidly in that range so that's a really you know strong target because as I think you pretty aware these are pretty high standards And so I think we look at that slide of 73.1 just slightly. I want to take the percent off of what you said is the only thing. Not a percent. They take all the scores and they translate them to a scale from zero to to to 100. Now, if your district had a score of 100, that would mean that every student was scoring at the maximum possible score for their grade level on Smarter Balance, which would be in the advanced band. As Ann is saying, if your district average was a scaled score

240of a 75, that would mean that on average your students are, and I looked at it, it's like twothirds of the way up into the grade level band. So it's very when when Ann's saying very solidly like the grade level band is let's say there's anything from this number to this number you know if you think of like your SAT or something like that that had a range of scores. So you're you're more than twothirds along the way of that curriculum where being at grade level is is down here at this lower threshold. Um and I believe you you might have shared in the written report a score in the 60s means you're at grade level. So the state would love a target where everyone's at 75. That's that's a pretty high threshold. Um are

241there districts at 75? There are some small districts that have a very low high needs population. So when you when you think about the fact that as Melissa pointed out, we have we've increased just in our special education population by 5% over the last five years. as Andy and Teresa were just discussing the increase in our socioeconomically disadvantaged population and as I think you heard in the previous report the increase in our English language learners. Um so our our overall population size has shrunk and at the same time our percentage of students in the high needs categories has risen. Um and it's our high needs group um that that that typically you know certainly language proficiency and students with disabilities um make it harder to be scoring at grade level. Um so so the increases

242that we continue to see are are more significant than the incremental sort of numbers would would necessarily uh by themselves suggest when once you once you contextualize it. Thank you. I think that context was important and what I was looking for. So, thanks. Other Yes, Gail. Um, so I had a question and something that was on the report uh where it says that the overall enrollment of our schools had decreased by 4%. But the um there was an increase in racial and ethnic diversity by of 3%. I just was wondering if you could put some context. I I don't understand exactly how we could have decreasing um enrollment, but I mean, well, I'm sure it can happen. I'm just curious if you could explain that. Right. So, we definitely have had decreasing enrollment. I don't

243have the numbers right with me, but um um I believe we cited 4% over a certain period of time, but during that time, the percentage of students of color has increased within. So um for a good example is Hispanic students have increased dramatically over the last few years. Even though we have fewer students, that group has been increasing. Okay. Total numbers in total numbers and in percentage also as a percentage then of the overall population. Correct. Right. Uh in fact the largest percentage of our growth in in um students of color is Hispanic and then two or more races is our second largest. Asian has increased a little bit. Black has stayed very similar. Uh but um Hispanic has grown um significantly. I think in just one year almost 90 students in one year. Um

244and I just had one follow-up question. Um you were following the one of your I think markers was that you followed the college entrance numbers. Do you follow um I I was curious like why you don't mention um like students who are going to like a trade school. Is that just because that's not part of the state report? Yeah, the state report um in the college area um has on page five actually talks about the entrance of you know what percentage what percentage your class is entering, what percentage is female or male, by race, by eligible for student uh free and reduced lunch by disability. So they'll tell you um what percentage you 83% of our class of 23 entered college and they say um refers to the percent of high school students from the

245year who enrolled in college any time during their first year. And then the other factor they give us is persistence. Did they go back for a second year? And that particular data point comes from something called the uh national student clearing house. It's a really fascinating report that you can get on school by school, not just by district, which shows if your kids are and then what percent graduate in six years or four years. Very interesting report, but the state uh PPR doesn't call for a students going to trade school at this time. Uh now, I'd have to dig into the detail a little bit more if how they're defining college two-year and four-year. I'd have to get that answer for you. There is a work group at the state level that's looking at all

246the indicators for the accountability index and looking to expand it so it includes students who take other pathways. So hopefully we'll get there. Memory is that it is two-year and four-year college. Yes, Claire. So, I just wanted um just something that really stood out in in um and kudos to the district, but the college career readiness number um that students in 11th and 12th grade or achieving the the college and career readiness benchmark was 21% higher than the state. I mean, that's we expect, you know, some increases over the state, but a 21% is pretty amazing. Um, I don't know what our DUI is showing. Um, but I I just big shout out to um all the doors that are being opened to our 11th and 12th graders when they get to leave our school

247with all of this um under their belt and to be 21% above the state. It's pretty amazing. Thank you for, you know, for saying that. I actually pulled our October 29th board report to you on that particular topic just because it it really is that remarkable um how well and this goes back probably more than 20 years of work in the district back to people Julio, Paul, Andy, everyone knew starting the seeds of that program. But it is a very strong program. It's outstanding. um what our students have an opportunity to take the the number of classes um and you know I thank you for mentioning it because it's not just a statistic that we should pass by quickly. It's truly remarkable um how well our students are doing in those really rigorous classes and

248we know just by sitting in them um it changes it has an effect on you. um not just you know they do very well passing them but just by sitting in just by participating it makes a big difference and um it sets a very high bar for their high school experience and it it's a standout um not only in the state it's a standout regionally nationally that nobody else is getting that number well just the assumption that anyone can enter an AP class you know and and so people start doing it where you you know, many times you just think, "Oh, I'm not in that vein. I can't do that." And you've proven that they can. Yes. And again, I want to take another moment. I'm sorry, but it's just such a good moment to

249say even when we did our report in October, whether uh students of color were ex doing so well in this program was uh 76% of the students involved earning a three or higher. So, it's widespread, too. It's it it really is a program for all. I just piggyback on that quickly. As Paul mentioned, I remember when I was in the principal role, I would get calls from all over the country, like cold calls because people were looking at our data and to call and say, "Hey, do you have time to meet with me? I just want to know what you're doing." Um, and really going through those pieces because it is deliberate. It's not by chance. And it does take a lot of work on everywhere from you know principal, school counselors, the teachers and

250then the belief that the kids have in themselves too and in each other um to do that. So I do think it's certainly worthy of celebration. Well said. Yes. Any other questions or comments? Ethan, I thought I heard you say you you have reports that tell you how many kids graduate from fouryear and two-year or did I misunderstand? The clearing house report, which the state doesn't publish, they the state takes the clearing house reports and picks certain parts of it to include here, but the clearing house has even more information about. So would it reflect West Harford schools or? Yep, we can get a clearing house. So that would be great if we could get that because I I'd be fascinating. Yes. Yeah, it's it's available and we can get it. Um, it it's a

251it's a very interesting uh report. It has a lot more information than just what the state garners for this accountability. Okay. Yeah, it be interesting to see how the students were progressing and what fields of study they went into. Yeah. Other questions or comments. All right. Thank you uh very much. Wonderful information. I just want to say I appreciate how you all continue to raise the bar of expectations. you do well, but you continue to aspire to do even better. So, thank you. Thank you. And one last time, Dr. Merl, your last time presenting before us. Thank you so much again. It's been a uh no, it's been a pleasure to be a part of this community and serve the community for 16 years. I wasn't going to take credit because if you remember back,

252it was it's been many hours, but if you remember to our presentation before, I actually hired uh Jared Legghorn in 2012 uh at Bristol Middle School. So well applause for that as well. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. All right. And as we transition transition again, we shall move to routine matters where we have our financial report regarding the approval of the of the financial report for the period ending April 30th, 2025. Is there a motion that the board of education approve the financial report for the period ending August I'm sorry, April 30th, 2025? So moved. Thank you, Jason. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Ethan. Discussion. So, I believe Jason, you are doing the report today. I am. And I think this report is just kind of summarizes the roller coaster we've been on

253this year. I think if we look back to March, we were facing a $1.4 million shortfall. We we will end this year with what is probably for the first time a $750,000 uh surplus. Um, if we look at salaries overall, we have uh we're projected to have a net surplus of $400,000 in salaries driven in large part by favorable variances in teacher substitutes and teacher assistance. Our benefits are costs are expected to be within appropriations. Um, purchase services were projected to have a $300,000 surplus at the end of the fiscal year. Um, in part this is due to um some savings it looks like on transportation. I think a month ago we were expecting $300,000 uh exceeding budget uh on transportation. That's down $25,000 as of this report. Um but most of this is driven

254by the um favorable uh variance of $650,000 for out of uh for out of district tuition uh which reflects both the um increase funding for the standard amount we were supposed to get from the state plus the emergency funding we received uh in the spring. Um the grants funding uh is on track. uh special programs is looks to have um projected annual interest income of $25,000. Um and the facility rental reserve will fund an additional $50,000 for custodial overtime. Uh the nutrition services fund has earned an operating profit of $161,536 through April 30th of 2025. Um and we've uh purchased $883,700 worth of um equipment for the planned capital improvements to Hall High School cafeteria. Uh year-to- date student lunch count is down just a bit from the prior year with 3,543 total lunches through

255April of 2025. So overall, it looks like we will at the at the end of the day if if um I believe the state is voting tomorrow on on their budget. I believe they are tomorrow's the last day of the session. In the event in the event that they don't include the increased excess cost grant funding for uh 26, uh it does look like we will have the reserve sufficient to fund our half um with the town kicking in the other 700,000. Correct. And with that, thank you so much. Teammates, questions, comments regarding our financial report? All right. Before we do vote, just want to say Liz, thank you so very much again for your time and dedication and supporting our district at large. This is your last formal presentation before us. So certainly do

256want to give you an opportunity if you care. Thank you. I really appreciate that. I have been very fortunate to spend the majority of my career with West Hartford Public Schools and the town of West Hartford. Um and I really will will miss it, but it is time. All right. both given the time of night and you know but thank you certainly well thank you and Barbara once again we welcome you to the team all right so with the motion on the floor teammates all of those in favor say I I any oppose any abstain the eyes have it thank you so much thank you moving on to approval of the minutes seeking a motion that the board of education approve the minutes of the regular board of education meeting of May the 20th 2025

257is there a motion So move. Thank you, Shannon. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Jason. Discussion, suggested edits. Seeing none, all just a typo. I noticed um Ethan's last name was spelled incorrectly on It's okay. That's okay. Do we fix typos? I don't know. I'm a stickler for grammar and spelling. Any other suggested edits? with the motion on the floor including the suggested edit to correctly spell Ethan's last name. All of those in favor say I. I. I. Any oppose? Any abstain? The eyes have it. Thank you very much. And moving on to information and reports. Board members, do we have any communications and reports from other boards or organizations? Seeing none, do we have any other information and discussions? I just want to quickly say it's our last meeting of this academic school

258year. So, as we prepare to go into the summer season, please be safe. Please enjoy your time, be rejuvenated because we look forward to seeing you once again in September. And so, with that, future business announcement of future meeting dates. Our next meeting will be Tuesday, September the 2nd, 2025, regular board of education meeting here at the town hall at 7 o'clock. Followed by Tuesday, September the 16th, 2025, regular board of education meeting, 7:00 here in the town hall. And then once again, Tuesday, October the 21st, 2025, regular board of education meeting here at the town hall at 700 p.m. Do we have a request for any future agenda items? Seeing none, do we have any visitors who would like to make a comment? Seeing none. All right. Seeing none, we do not have an

259executive session. Therefore, seeking a motion to adjourn. So move. Thank you, Shannon. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Ethan. Meeting adjourned at about 10:40.